Alberto Contador, the Spanish cycling hero who won the Tour de France several times has been banned for a doping rule violation (media release).
This judgment by the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) underlines once more that all athletes are responsible for whatever is in their body. No excuses. It’s a case of strict liability. If a black-listed substance is circulating in your veins, you’re responsible for that. No ifs and buts.
In Contador’s case it was clenbuterol. Contador didn’t deny the substance was in his blood, but he claimed it was due to meat contamination.
The Panel didn’t buy it and thought that the positive test result was likely to have been caused by a contaminated food supplement.
Might he have ingested the substance deliberately? Of course not!
In essence, even the Panel says that Contador was just damn unlucky.
CAS banned Contador for two years. Mind you the ban is applied retrospectively, and there was a provisional ban too which was taken into account, so he’ll be back in the saddle from early August 2012.
And the world keeps spinning…
But seriously, what is one to make of statements such as these:
Contador: “I have never taken doping substances in my life. And not only have I not taken doping substances, but I have always been surrounded by people (cyclists, doctors, trainers, etc.) who categorically reject the use of doping substances.” (paragraph 339)
We could get caught up in semantics here. Everyone categorically rejects the use of doping substances, so that’s probably true, but the statement is clearly misleading, approaching a joke even. What people do, as opposed to what they publicly proclaim, can be very different. In this case, WADA was able to produce a list of 12 former or current team members who were banned for doping (paragraph 342). Clearly we can’t go down the path of guilt by association; at the same time, we don’t have to swallow incredible statements such as these.
Interesting for all athletes is the passage from the judgment which considers another case of contamination from a food supplement. If you think you’re safe because you only take legal supplements, consider the case of Jessica Hardy (CAS 2009/A/1870 WADA v Jessica Hardy & USADA). She took all sorts of precautions, and she could prove that the over-the-counter-supplement she took was contaminated with clenbuterol, but she still received a ban, although reduced in her case.
I wonder now what could be in my muesli…