Doping and sports - 2006

2006

At the meeting of the European Olympic Committees in Rome, Belgian IOC president Jacques Rogge (1942-) expressed his concern about the extent of doping in sports centers:

"The problem is that doping cannot disappear overnight. Doping in sport is like crime in society. It is one of our responsibilities, but above all a priority: we work hard to fight and overcome it."

In Belgium, 2,528 doping controls were carried out in 2006, of which 141 or 5.6% were positive. In Belgian fitness clubs even 30 percent of the tests were positive.

Twenty athletes were checked at the World Cup powerlifting in Ghent; seventeen of them fled the check.

In 2006, German doctor and doping researcher Luitpold Kistler (1980-) revealed in his doctoral thesis Anabolic Abuse Deaths - Cause of Death, Findings and Legal Aspects ('Todesfälle bei Anabolikamissbrauch - Todesursache, Befunde und Rechtmedizinische Aspekte'):

“A total of ten people were examined with a proven history of anabolic use. Their age varied from 28 to 45 years. (...) A hypertrophy of the heart was found at the autopsy in all individuals with an average weight of 517 grams. Furthermore, new (n = 5) and old (n = 4) myocardial infarctions and chronic ischemic myocardial changes (n = 10) were found, as well as a myocarditis (n = 1). In addition to an arteriosclerosis of different severity grades (n = 9), the coronary arteries also had a thrombotic occlusion in two cases. Arteriosclerotic changes were also found in the A. carotis and Aorta areas."

Former Belgian judo coach Jean-Marie Dedecker (1952-) revealed that three Belgian cycling top athletes were involved in doping. He did not mention any names and passed the file on to the court.

A study published in France showed that the use of corticosteroids can provoke adrenal insufficiency, as it stops the endogenous production of cortisol. As a result, one may for example die from infections. According to Professor Yves Le Bouc (1955-) of the French anti-doping agency, this can also provoke a sudden cardiac arrest. The study was based on a study carried out between 2001 and 2002 among 659 cyclists, 85 of which were prescribed corticosteroids. Renal insufficiency was present in 34 cases.

On 30 June the Portuguese representative José Ribeiro e Castro (1953-) put a written question to the European Commission

It has recently been in the news that 150 former high-level competition athletes from the former GDR have tried to bring proceedings against the pharmaceutical company Jenapharm and the German Olympic Committee, demanding damages for the harm they suffered thanks to the doping scheme used by the German communist regime. Jenapharm was a state company until the dissolution of the GDR, and the German Olympic Committee is the legal successor to the defunct GDR Olympic Committee.
The scheme in question, controlled by the STASI and directed by the Committee for High Performance Sport of the Central Committee of the Single Socialist Party and by the Sports Medical Service succeeded in misleading the international sporting authorities for over 30 years. Based on intensive doses of the drug Oral Turinabol, and the experimental use of other substances, the scheme allowed the GDR to reach the summits of world athletics. These procedures, one of the most large-scale pharmacological experiments in history, went on for over 30 years, affecting the lives and health of thousands of Germans.
The victims suffer from cardiovascular deformities, irreversible voice changes, far-reaching hormonal changes, abnormal hair growth and cancer, with registered cases of genetic mutation affecting them and their descendants.
The dramatic cases of Heidi (now Andreas) Krieger, Catherine Menschner, Ute Krause, Birgit Böse, Katharina Bullin, Ines Geipel, Roland Schmidt, Karlin Balzer, Petra Schneider, Rica Reisnisch, Jutta Gottschalk, Detlef Gerstenberg, Brigit Dressel and George Severs, and many others horrifically unmask the terrifying consequences of the use made of competitive sport by the communist dictatorships and their absolute contempt for the health of their athletes.
Is the Commission aware of these facts? How does it view them? Has it followed the cases of Heidi (now Andreas) Krieger, Catherine Menschner, Ute Krause, Birgit Böse, Katharina Bullin, Ines Geipel, Roland Schmidt, Karlin Balzer, Petra Schneider, Rica Reisnisch, Jutta Gottschalk, Detlef Gerstenberg, Brigit Dressel and George Severs? Has it provided support for any of them, or any other victims? What steps has it taken or does it intend to take to combat the use of doping substances and warn against their secondary effects?
Is it prepared to draw attention to and publicise these cases, particularly amongst the very young, as terrible examples of what chemical substances can do?

Answer given by Mr Figel' on behalf of the Commission

The Commission has always been aware that doping practices pose a serious threat to the health of athletes. As a rule, information about long-term damage has not been readily available until now because practices and substances change, information is difficult to obtain and, in most cases, longitudinal studies cannot be carried out. The situation of former high-level competition athletes from the former Free Democratic Party (GDR) constitutes a case apart, representing the single most substantial source of normally unavailable evidence.
The material in question is part of a bigger picture which has been the subject of discussion for a number of years. Its culmination was the adoption in 2002 by the German Bundestag of a specific legal framework (Doping-Opfer-Entschädigungsgesetz) which allows for compensation to be paid to victims of organised doping performed within the sporting structures of the GDR. The German legislator addressed the challenge by setting up an initial financial reserve of EUR 2 million.
The issue had of course been identified before then, but was marked by a research deficit. Hence, when researchers based at the German Sports University in Cologne launched a project on the ‘Biomedical Side Effects of Doping’, co-financed by the Commission in 2000-01, the focus was on the health damage suffered by former GDR athletes. The results of the project were documented in a book with the same title edited by C. Peters, T. Schulz and H. Michna. To underline the importance of its message, Mrs Reding, the Member of the Commission responsible for Education and Culture, covering sport, at that time, authored a Preface to the book. Both the 2000?01 project and one follow-up project were co-financed from the budget line which at that time was reserved for anti-doping projects.
In addition, the Programme of Community Actions in the field of public health 2003-08(1), which tackles major health determinants for reducing the burden of disease and promoting the health of the general population, includes in its objectives the promotion and stimulation of Member States’ efforts in this field and in the area of drugs prevention in particular. A project on doping and health has been co-funded under the 2004 call for proposals of this programme. Its aims are to harmonise the scientific state of knowledge about the biomedical side effects of drug abuse in sports throughout Europe and to present it to the general public of all Member States and candidate countries(2).
More generally, the fight against doping remains a major concern for the Commission, which has promoted initiatives in this field within the limits of its powers. In the absence of a specific legal basis to fight doping in sport, the Commission will continue to seek progress in the context of other Community policy areas and will enhance dialogue with stakeholders and Member States with a view to strengthening the European approach to doping in sport.
Furthermore, the Commission has decided to launch a White Paper on sport to be published in 2007. Special attention will be paid, within this initiative, to the fight against doping.

Winter Olympics

At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, something incredible happened. When two inspectors checked into the Austria's hotel, biathletes Wolfgang Rottmann (1973-) and Wolfgang Perner (1967-) fled their room through the window. Both were banned from the team, received a lifelong suspension and Perner announced the end of his sports career in March.

Four other Austrian cross-country skiers Martin Tauber (1976-), Juergen Pinter (1979-), Johannes Eder (1979-) and Roland Diethart (1973-) were excluded for life by the IOC for participation in the Olympics. The Austrian Olympic Committee was also fined a million dollars.

Russian biathlete Olga Medwedzewa (1975-) won the silver medal in the 15 km during the Winter Olympics in Turin. The test afterwards, however, showed that she had used Cafedon, she had to hand in her medal and was suspended for two years, after which she announced her retirement from top sport.

Brazilian bobsleigh and former hammer thrower Armando dos Santos (1982-) was excluded of the four-man bob by his selection committee after it became known that he had been doped before the Winter Olympics.

American skeletoner champion Zach Lund (1979-) was not allowed to participate in the Winter Olympics because he was suspended for the use of finasteride. Three years later, that product was removed from the doping list. Lund also lost the second place he had at the World Cup in Calgary.

On the eve of the Winter Olympics, a too high hemoglobin value was found at German cross-country skier Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle (1980-), so she was banned from starting for five days. As a result, she missed the 15 kilometer pursuit, in which she was one of the contenders in the overall victory. In 2014, she was caught again during the Winter Olympics in Sochi, for which she was suspended for two years. The penalty was later reduced to six months because the prohibited substance would have been in a dietary supplement.

After the Games

A few years later, the IOC conducted new tests on 500 blood samples from 2006. In 2014, the Estonian Olympic Committee was informed that cross-country ski star Kristina Šmigun (1977-), who won the gold medal in the 10km and the 15km pursuit, had tested positive. The Estonian had to hand in her medals.

New sinners

The doping problem gradually reached the smaller countries, such as Latvia.

The barely 15-year-old weightlifter Raimonds Lacis (1991-) had been at Furosemide and was suspended for two years.

Curling specialist Edgars Soika was caught using the diuretic Spironolactone and was suspended for a year.

Bodybuilder Vitaly Alexandrov, in 2004 world champion in his weight class, had been on Clenbuterol, Mesterolone and Stanozolol and could watch from the sidelines for two years.

American football

In March 2006 American orthopedic surgeon James Shortt was blamed the distribution of anabolic steroids and hGH (Human growth hormone). He had a "longevity medicine clinic" in Greenville, South Carolina and would have sold testosterone, stanozolol, nandrolone, fluoxymesterone and oxymetholone over a six-year period. Among the customers a lot of professional footballers. His doctor's license was withdrawn and he had to pay a $ 10,000 fine. Shortt was also sued by the family of an MS patient and by the family of a patient with prostate cancer because the chelation therapy he had applied led to their death.

Todd Sauerbrun (1973-) played punter in the American National Football League for thirteen years. The Denver Broncos suspended him for a month and $ 328,235 was withheld from his large $ 1,395 million annual salary after he was caught using ephedra or sea grape, a plant used as a dietary supplement but containing ephedrine. It speeds up the heart rhythm and causes vasoconstriction. Sauerbrun was arrested in December 2007 after a fight with a taxi driver, after which his team sent him off. Because of his suspension, Sauerbrun missed the first four games of the season.

The NFL placed ephedra on the list of prohibited substances after the death of Korey Stringer (1974-2001) of the Minnesota Vikings.

Shawne Merriman (1984-), linebacker at the San Diego Chargers, was suspended for four games in October due to anabolics use.

Shaun Rogers (1979-), a defensive tackle with the New York Giants, was caught in October using anabolics. For this he was put aside three games.

Baseball

Yusaku Iriki (1972-) played pitcher in the Japanese baseball league, but signed a $ 750,000 contract with the New York Mets in 2006. In April of that year, he was suspended for fifty matches after an unannounced doping test at training camp. He had apparently been on the steroids and because of this the Mets fired him.

Andy Pettitte (1972-), starting pitcher with the New York Yankees, was charged with the use of performance-enhancing drugs after a federal police raid. He would have received amphetamines, anabolic steroids and growth hormones from old teammate Kirk Radomski (1969-). The products were recommended to him by trainer Brian McNamee (1967-), a former police officer from New York.

The American Federal officials invaded Jason Grimsley's (1967-) home because they suspected him of distributing growth hormone and other performance-enhancing drugs. After he publicly announced this, the Arizona Diamondbacks board fired him at his own request. Moreover, he did not receive his back pay of $ 875,000 in wages and had to stay away from fifty games. Documents showed that in 2003 he was doped with growth hormone, amphetamines and steroids. Later it became knwon that he had been using it since 1998. During the September 2006 investigation he told on various players, like Roger Clemens (1962-) and Andy Pettitte (1972-) of the Houston Astros who had used performance enhancers and Miguel Tejada (1974-), Jay Gibbons (1977-) ) and Brian Roberts (1977-) from the Baltimore Orioles who were also keen fans of anabolic steroids. In December 2007, it turned out that Roberts, Clemens and Pettitte were not even mentioned in the Mitchell report, after which the American newspaper LA Times, which had published the story, publicly apologized.

Basketball

American Chris Andersen (1978-) played with the New Orleans Hornets when in January he was banned from the NBA for two years for amphetamine use.

In August, New Zealander Mark Dickel (1976-) delivered a positive pie for cannabis, which earned him two matches of suspension. The FIBA added ten days to this, so he missed the first three games of the World Cup in Japan. His Russian club Lokomotiv Rostov fired him.

Boxing

Rosendo Álvarez (1970-) boxed against Mexican Jorge Arce (1979-) for the world title in the fly weights, but due to technical KO the man from Nicaragua had to give up in the sixth round. After the fight, he was caught using the diuretic furosemide, which excluded him until the end of the year and earned him a two thousand dollar fine.

Cricket

After testing positive for nandrolone, the coach of Pakistan's cricket team excluded Mohammad Asif (1982-) and Shoaib Akhtar (1975-) from the team that participated in the Champions Trophy.

In June 2008, Asif was arrested in Dubai for possession of drugs, and barely a month later he was caught in India again for the use of steroids. In 2010 he received a seven-year suspension because he was bribed by a gambling firm to deliberately lose games. Moreover, the Court sentenced him to a one-year prison sentence.

Cycling

Fourteen cyclists died of heart failure in two months, eleven of which were younger than 34 years old.

In March, former mountain biking world champion Christophe Dupouey (1968-2009) was sentenced to three months in prison for his share in a trade with doping products. During a raid, the researchers found more than three thousand ampoules "Pot Belge" with the Frenchman, a cocktail of amphetamines, painkillers, heroin and cocaine. Dupouey then became severely depressed and committed suicide in 2009.

In May the Amsterdam Court of Appeal ruled in the case that the UCI had brought against Willy Voet (1945-), because of a passage in his book "Massacre à la Chaine". In it, Voet suggested that Laurent Brochard (1968-) became world champion in 1997 thanks to prohibited drugs. In his ruling, the court also prohibited the passage in which Voet claimed that Dutchman Hein Verbruggen (1941-2017) of the UCI was involved in an antidated prescription. of Lidocaine and that he had subsequently tried to nip the facts and circumstances of the Brochard case in the bud. Lidocaine was prescribed to Brochard for therapeutic purposes. Voet had to remove those passages from his book, if not he had to pay fifteen thousand Euros each time it turned out that this had not yet happened and he also paid for the legal costs of both proceedings.

In an interview with the New York Times of May 2006, American Frankie Andreu (1967-) announced he had used EPO in the 1999 Tour de France. At the time he was a member of the US Postal team, not coincidentally the team of Lance Amstrong (1971-). He stated that he first came into contact with doping in 1995 when he was riding for Motorola and that team doctor Luis Garcia del Moral injected him with EPO in 1999, in preparation for the Tour de France. Andreu's wife Betsy, thought it suspicious that her husband, who was a sprinter after all, was helping Amstrong across the mountains. Her suspicions about doping were confirmed shortly after the Tour, when she found a thermos full of EPO in her fridge. When she spoke to her husband about this, he answered:

"You don't understand, this is the only way to keep up in the Tour de France."

To which Betsy replied:

"If you need doping to stay in the team, you don't have to drive for it anymore."

In June, a journalist from the German newspaper "Süddeutsche Zeitung" asked David Millar (1977-) if he was convinced that the peloton was starting to run clean. The Schot's answer did not lie:

"That's a damned unrealistic hope, because that would be like pigs could fly! Hey, this is professional sports, and believe me: As long as money is part of the sport, there will be doping. And if you believe something else, you're a goddamn idiot. But fortunately, I really believe, in five or six years time there will not be these specific doctors, and there will be no organized team doping."

In June 2011, Millar released the autobiography 'Racing Through the Dark', in which he extensively described his life, with due attention to his doping use.

Laurent Roux (1972-) testified about his doping practices before the court in Bordeaux.

“EPO, growth hormone, cortisone ... I used everything that was common in the peloton at the time. Everyone did that. The best cyclists used products that I couldn't afford on my salary, they were injected with synthetic hemoglobin and had blood transfusions. ”

Roux was first caught in the 1999 Flêche Wallone for the use of amphetamines and was suspended for six months. A second positive check on amphetamines followed in 2002, for which he was given four years and then he decided to stop cycling. In 2006 he flew behind bars for 2.5 years for his share in the doping affair. On the first day of the so-called 'Cahors' case, Fabien Roux (1982-) was questioned, Laurent's younger brother accused former rider Laurent Jalabert (1968-) of bringing him into contact with the 'pot belge' for the first time.

After the Vuelta, Spaniard Aitor González (1975-) was caught using methyltestosterone and suspended for two years. The Spanish cycling association then acquitted him, because he supposedly swallowed energy tablets, not knowing that they were contaminated. In December, the CAS overturned this decision and suspended him again. After his cycling career, González came into contact with the police and the judiciary several times. In 2007 he was convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol and cocaine. A year later, the Spaniard was arrested for hiring three people who had to mistreat someone who had debts with him. In 2011, he was arrested for a bank scam and arrested in 2016 on suspicion of theft in a telephone store in Alicante.

Just before the start of the Tour de France, it was announced that both Ivan Basso (1977-) and Jan Ulrich (1973-) had been pushed aside by their team for alleged drug use and would therefore not appear at the start.

American Floyd Landis (1975-) won the Tour de France, but a week after arriving at the Champs Elysées, it was announced that he had tested positive. The counter-expertise was also positive, so he was suspended for two years. Landis continued to deny his doping use. After a whole series of procedures, Tour boss Christian Prudhomme (1960-) announced in May 2007 that the American was definitively removed from the lists. In February 2010, Landis was accused of a burglary attempt on the computer system of the French doping lab in Châtenay-Malabry, whereupon an arrest warrant against the American was issued. In May 2010, he admitted the use of prohibited drugs, which happened after the "Wall Street Journal" received emails in which Landis announced his doping use. In an interview with TV channel ESPN, he stated that he spent ninety thousand dollars a year on EPO and testosterone patches. In January 2011 he announced he would never return to the cycling platoon. He also continued to accuse Lance Amstrong (1971) of doping for all those years.

After the Tour of Turkey tesosterone metabolites were found in the urine of American Joe Papp (1975-), for which he was suspended for two years. It later turned out that he too was involved in the doping affairs of Floyd Landis (1975-), Kayle Leogrande (1977-), Jeannie Longo (1959-) and Lance Amstrong (1971-). He decided to work intensively with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). He confessed his extensive use of anabolic steroids, EPO, growth hormones, cortisone, insulin, thyroid hormone and amphetamines. He said he crashed in Italy during the last race of the season, but what was normally a routine tumble with scrapes and bruises had almost cost him his life. The combination of EPO and blood thinners led to hospitalization with internal bleeding, at which time he had a hematocrit value of 58. He told USADA the entire doping event and disguised the identity of two American physicians who prescribed the prohibited drugs. But the hypocrisy of the whole story was that during his testimonies, he quietly continued to trade EPA and hGH, something he confessed to the Supreme Court judge in February 2010. According to the public prosecutor, he had approached 180 international customers. In 2011, Papp was sentenced to six months' house arrest and had to remain available to the court for another six months.

In his autobiography 'Let me explain', Danish Jesper Skibby (1964-) admitted he had used doping for more than ten years. In 1991 he started with anabolic steroids and caffeine, the following year he added growth hormones and testosterone and also EPO a year later.

Dane Per Pedersen (1964-) announced in December that he had used cortisone.

Austrians Christian Ebner (1984-) and Marco Oreggia (1986-) were suspended for two years, Ebner for not showing up for a doping test, Oreggia for a positive EPO test.

Darts

British Robbie Green (1974-) was the first dart player to be caught using prohibited substances. After the quarter finals of the UK Open it turned out that he had used marijuana. "Kong" was fined three thousand pounds, had to surrender the four thousand pound prize money, was suspended for eight weeks and his sponsor also left him.

Football

Briton Shaun Newton (1975-) had to watch from the sidelines for seven months for sniffing cocaine, as was shown by the test taken after the semi-final for the Cup between West Ham United and Middlesbrough.

Another Briton Chris Cornes (1986-) was suspended for six months for a positive cocaine test after which his Wolverhampton Wanderers club showed him the door. In May 2015, Cornes was arrested in Worcester for possession and sale of drugs and money laundering, after £ 40,000 worth of pure cocaine and a substantial sum of money was found in the back seat of his car. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years and four months in prison.

In his autobiography 'Je ne joue plus' ('I do not play anymore'), Frenchman Jean-Jacques Eydelie (1966-) did not only reveal the corruption scandal around his former team Olympique Marseille, but also the doping troubles from that period. Marseille became French champion in 1993 but due to the bribery scandal in the match against Valenciennes it relegated to second class. Eydelie, who was closely involved in that scandal, ended up in jail for seventeen days and was suspended by UEFA for a year. Former chairman Bernard Tapie (1943-) and teammate Didier Dechamps (1968-) took him to court after the publication of the book, but lost the case.

At the request of national coach Shahin Diniyev (1966-), Russian Sergei Sokolov (1977-) requested to be naturalized as a resident of Azerbaijan. He played the four qualifier games for the 2008 European Championship, but he tested positive for betamethasone in October 2006 after the game against Belgium. It earned him an eighteen month suspension.

Russian Aleksandr Tikhonovetsky (1979-) had to stay on the sidelines for eight months after a positive test for marijuana.

Mbulelo Mabizela (1980-), nicknamed "Old John", was at the age of twenty the youngest captain of the South African team. In 2004, the English team Tottenham Hotspur thanked him for services rendered because he was far too often illegally absent. In 2006, he was caught using marijuana, which earned him a six-month suspension and a $ 6,900 fine. In 2008 he had to step aside for drunk driving.

Australian Stan Lazaridis (1972-) tested positive for finasteride in November and was suspended for twelve months by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority.

Gymnastics

During the World Cup in Ghent, Belarusian Nadzeya Vysotskaya (1988-) was caught using the diuretic furosemide and she was suspended until the end of 2007.

Ice hockey

French Canadian goalkeeper José Theodore (1976-) was suspended for two years by his ice hockey association because he had used Finasteride.

American Bryan Berard (1977-) was caught using 19-norandrosterone just before the Winter Olympics, making him the first NFL player to be caught on anabolics. He was suspended for two years.

Mixed Martial Arts

Kevin Randleman (1971-2016), American heavyweight champion, delivered a pee without the slightest trace of hormones. So it was clearly a "fake sample". The following year he was hospitalized with severe kidney damage, according to him due to the large amount of pain killers and antibiotics. His license was subsequently withdrawn for six months. He died of heart failure in February 2016.

Polish judoka Pawel Nastula (1970-) was crowned world champion in the 95 kg class in 1995 and 1997 and he won the gold medal in that category at the Atlanta Olympics. From 1994 to 1998, he remained undefeated and won 312 games in a row. Because he also had some experience with wrestling and sumo wrestling, he subsequently switched to mixed martial arts. There he was caught in 2006 on the use of Nadrolone, phenylpropanolamine, pseudoephedrine and ephedrine.

Rugby

The Australian rugby club North Queensland Cowboys canceled the contract of Mitchell Sargent (1979-) after a positive cocaine test. Sargent confessed immediately and did not even ask for a second test.

"He is broken, I am devastated and his family is incredibly shocked," said manager Robinson, "he has apologized to everyone since last Sunday. He only says that he would like to turn back the clock if he could, but unfortunately that is not possible. He has done wrong things and he insists on accepting the punishment."

British Jamie Durbin (1984-) was active with the Widnes Vikings when, after the game against the Blackpool Panthers in March, he tested positive for stanozolol and was suspended for two years.

Calvin Watson played with his rugby team Hunslet Hawks against Doncaster in March, but was on cocaine, which forced him to leave for a year.

In July Australian Wendell Sailor (1974-) tested positive for cocaine, after which he was suspended for two years and was no longer allowed to participate in any sport in Australia. Sailor, by the way, was a bit of a nutcase, not only did he behave like a wild man on the field, but he was also charged with public drunkenness and anger behind the wheel, arguing in a nightclub and spitting into a woman's face. The positive test came less than two months after he was evicted from a nightclub in South Africa.

Englishman David Allen (1985-) was suspended for two years in November for cocaine use.

Squash

After finishing third in the Dutch squash championship, benzylpiperazine was found in the urine of Karen Kronemeyer (1981-). That product is ten times more powerful than amphetamines and was a popular "party pill" in the years 2000 to 2005. Kronemeyer was suspended for two years, but that penalty was later halved by the appeals committee.

Swimming

Brazilian freestyle specialist Rebeca Gusmão (1984-) tested positive for the first time in May. She had used testosterone. In July 2007 she was even caught twice. First at training camp and again at testosterone, a little later during the Pan American Games in her own capital Rio de Janeiro, she had tampered with the urine samples that she had to deliver after her win in the 50 and 100 m freestyle. She was immediately disqualified. In May 2008, FINA suspended its two years for the first test of 2007, in July of that year another two years followed for the positive test of 2006 and two months later followed by lifelong exile for recidivism and tampering with urine samples: she had delivered urine in a vial that was not used by the monitoring lab.

Her body metamorphosis in a few years' time was immensely striking, as can be seen in the photos above.

She was therefore heavily criticized in the Brazilian press, several laughable collages of hers appeared. Her head was stuck on that of the "Incredible Hulk."

A cartoonist drew a mustache on her face with the speech bubble

“Let's see. Who here forgot to epilate his mustache???”

During the US Open, Tunisian Oussama Mellouli (1984-) was caught using amphetamines and was put aside for two years. Because his suspension ended in May 2008, he was able to participate in the Beijing Olympics. On the final day of that Olympiad he won gold in the 1500m freestyle.

In August at the Pan Pacific Games in Victoria, Brazilian Renata Burgos (1982-) competed in the 50, 100 and 200m freestyle. In December she was national champion 50m freestyle, but the doping test afterwards showed that she had done so with the help of stanozolol. Two years of suspension was the result.

Tennis

In 2006 after the semi-final of the Davis Cup against Argentina, Slovak Karol Beck (1982-) tested positive for clenbuterol, suspending him for two years.

During the qualifying round for the Australian Open, New Zealander Mark Nielsen (1977-) urinated positively on finasteride, a product that masks doping abuse. The verdict was two years in suspension, which immediately marked the end of his professional career.

Bulgarian Sesil Karatantcheva (1989-) was suspended for two years. The year before, she had beaten Venus Williams (1980-) in the quarter-finals of the French Open, but the obligatory pee afterwards indicated that she had been on the Nandrolone. In February 2009 she applied for Kazakh nationality, but in 2015 she again participated for Bulgaria.

During a doping test at Roland Garos, Argentinian Mariano Hood (1973-) was caught using finasteride.

Frenchman Antony Dupuis (1973-) tested positive for salbutamol and was put aside for two months and a half. He also received a USD 30,540 fine.

Triathlon

British Tim Don (1978-) won the World Cup triathlon in Lausanne, Switzerland, but was suspended for three months a few weeks later because he had not presented himself for doping control three times in eighteen months. In 2017, he sustained a cervical vertebra fracture three days before the Ironman of Hawaii when he was hit by a car during a bike training session.

Austrian Georg Swoboda (1978-) won the national championship triathlon, but had to surrender it when the check revealed that he had taken mesterolone. He was banned for two years.

Track and Field

After the meeting in Lawrence, Kansas, a too high testosterone level was found at Justin Gatlin (1982-). The American claimed that he had not taken anything himself, probably his masseur had treated him with a testosterone-containing ointment. Because he had been caught using amphetamines five years earlier as a junior, and was then suspended for a year, people now feared a lifelong ban. He 'only' got eight years because he promised to cooperate with the anti-doping efforts of the USADA. His suspension was halved in January 2008.

His coach Trevor Graham (1963-), a former sprinter from Jamaica, was fired by the USOC because he, in addition to Gatlin, coached six other athletes incorrectly.

Swedish shot putter and disc thrower Ricky Bruch (1946-2011) confessed in an interview that he had used anabolica until 1975, during that period he had become Swedish champion several times. He participated in three Olympic Games with the bronze medal at the 1972 Olympics in Munich as the best result. That same year he also set the world record discus. In 2011 he died of pancreatic cancer.

American hammer thrower Scott Boothby (1973-), participant in the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympics, peeed positive on finasteride, a masking agent, and on  6-oxo-androstenedione, an aromatase inhibitor, for which he had to leave for eight years. Later the product was removed from the doping list and Boothby was restored to his former glory.

British Christine Ohuruogu (1984-), who became world champion twice and Olympic champion at the 400m once, was suspended for one year in June because she had avoided three doping controls. As a result, she missed the 2006 European Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden. The British Olympic Committee even wanted to keep her away from the Olympic competitions for life, but the Sport's Professional Committee put a stop to that.

Víctor Castillo (1981-) from Venezuela participated in the long jump at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Two years later he was caught during a check. Because he had swallowed furosemide, he received a two-year suspension. After his suspension he made a comeback and at the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara he won the gold medal with a jump of 8m05. However, the test afterwards turned positive for methyl hexaneamine, after which he had to hand in his medal. That second violation also resulted in a lifelong suspension.

In May high concentrations of methandienone were found in the urine of Russian discus thrower Natalja Sadowa (1972-). It earned her a two-year suspension. In 2001, she had been crowned world champion in Edmonton, Canada, but that title was withdrawn from her because doping controls had found excessively high caffeine levels. Later she got the title back.

Russian Lyubov Kharlamova (1981-) was a 3,000m steeple specialist. She finished fourth at the European Championships in Gothenburg and at the World Cup in Stuttgart. When it turned out that she had done that with the help of steroids, she was suspended for two years. On her return, she won the bronze medal at the 2010 European Championships in Barcelona, but in 2017 she had to surrender that honorary metal after it appeared during the retesting of the samples that she had once again been on prohibited substances, and again she was suspended for two years.

Portuguese Fernando Silva (1980-) finished second at the European Cross Country Championships in San Georgio, but moments later he was suspended for two years because an out-of-competition check revealed EPO use. He had to hand in the silver medal and all his achievements were annuled.

During a non-competitive check, traces of testosterone were found in South African hurdler runner Surita Febbraio (1973-), for which she received a two-year suspension.

South African 400m specialist Ofentse Mogawane (1982-) produced a positive pee on methyl prednisolone, but came off with a warning.

Sébastien Gattuso (1971-), a 100m sprinter from Monaco, received a six-month suspension after traces of finasteride were found during a check, a substance that masks prohibited products. After his suspension, he focused on bobsleigh.

Weightlifting

At Doha airport, customs found 134 ampoules of nandrolone in the luggage of the Iraqi bodybuilder and weightlifter Saad Faeaz (1974-). The organization of the Asian Games sent him home.

Together with forty-five other athletes, the entire Indian team was excluded from the World Championship weightlifting.

Burmese Mya Sanda Oo (1976-) was caught doping during the Asian Games in Qatar. She finished second in the category up to 75 kg, but had to surrender that silver medal.

Sanda's positive check came just two days after her compatriot Kyi Kyi Than (1977-) was caught on diuretics in the 48 kg category.

Two Uzbek athletes were also caught. Elmira Ramieva, who finished fifth among women in the category up to 69 kg, peed positive on anabolics, while Alexander Urinov (1973-) (photo) was caught using cannabis.

Bulgarian Rumyana Petkova (1982-) was caught using Stanozolol just before the European Championships.