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What are the takeaways from today’s doping news? Citius Mag unpacks it for you.

By Paul Snyder

April 3, 2017

On Sunday, German news broadcaster ADR shared a report by doping-sleuth journalist Hajo Seppelt, alleging that the IOC and WADA were aware of several Jamaican sprinters testing positive for a banned substance after a 2016 re-testing of urine samples from the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

You can read the full article or watch the nine-plus minute video yourself, or you can take my word for it, as I already did those things and have summarized the key takeaways below.

  • We don’t know how Hajo Seppelt got all his information, or necessarily who his sources are, but whatever he did, this is some serious stuff, and impressively collected. It’s nothing short of what you’d expect from a man whose Twitter banner simply reads: “Journalism: for TV & Radio.”
  • The first huge claim is that last year, “during the re-analysis for banned substances, clenbuterol was detected in several urine samples from the 2008 Jamaican Olympics team… [including] samples from the Caribbean island’s male sprinters.”
  • So what’s clenbuterol? It’s a banned substance that is a super effective performance-enhancer, used by athletes to burn fat, and build and preserve muscle. It’s what disgraced Tour-de-France champion Alberto Contador was busted for. If, and that’s the key word here, the Jamaican sprinters were using it, that’s a huge deal.
  • What’s perhaps more scandalous than the allegedly dirty Jamaican piss, is the fact that both the IOC and WADA are aware of it, but have chosen to do nothing. IOC Medical Director Richard Budgett allegedly forbade the anti-doping lab who discovered the presence of clenbuterol from publicly sharing its findings. And WADA Director General Olivier Niggli went on record with ADR saying he too was aware of the situation, but that he was under the impression the clenbuterol levels found in the sprinters’ samples were low enough to possibly have come from contaminated meat. More on that in the next bullet point.
  • At the time of the Beijing games, clenbuterol was used in China as an animal-fattening additive. To ensure athletes didn’t eat tainted meat, the Olympic Village was basically put on lockdown from a food perspective, as no outside eats were allowed in. It was clearly stated that any trace amount of clenbuterol found in an athlete was not to be tolerated, meat or not, a policy that was proven when Adam Seroczynski (a Polish canoeist) was discovered to have ingested the substance two days after the Games’ conclusion, he was slapped with a two year ban.
  • And therein lies another major issue. If clenbuterol wasn’t tolerated at the time of the games, even in minute quantities, why should it be now? Though it seems the Jamaican male sprinters are the highest profile athletes implicated in this leak, the IOC has said the retesting of samples revealed in “a number of cases of athletes from a number of countries and from a number of different sports very low levels of clenbuterol,” but that these athletes are innocent, while Seroczynski was guilty.
  • The report gets even wilder, on the testimony of Angel Heredia, formerly one of the premier PED-dealer in the world. After stepping away from his illicit activity, he has served as a key witness for the FBI and USADA. He claims that Jamaican coaches asked him about the effects of the substance ahead of the 2008 Olympics, and that he can say with complete certainty that the Jamaican sprint squad was using clenbuterol for doping purposes at the games.
  • Between the oft-speculated about “Piss Dossier” (a video rumored to exist of President Trump allegedly tinkling or getting tinkled on by a Russian sex-worker), and these allegations of prominent Jamaican sprinters’ clenbuterol-infestested pee from the Beijing games, 2017 has the potential to become a banner year for urine. Imagine, piddle leading to the impeachment of a major world leader, as well as the nullification of several track and field world records.
  • But ultimately, don’t expect anything to really come from this report in terms of sanctions. The main takeaway is that it raises question about the IOC and WADA’s consistency regarding enforcement. The IOC isn’t doing anything with these clenbuterol findings, because the traces of the substance discovered was too small. Could that precedent impact future arbitration?

Paul Snyder

Meme-disparager, avid jogger, MS Paint artist, friend of Scott Olberding, Citius Mag staff writer based in Flagstaff. Supplying baseless opinions, lukewarm takes, and vaguely running-related content. Once witnessed televison's Michael Rapaport cut a line of 30 people to get a slice of pizza at John's on Bleeker at 4am. You can follow Paul on Twitter at @DanielDingus.