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Indian Express
02-05-2025
- Sport
- Indian Express
‘Watch who you kiss': Elite athletes warned casual sex could lead to doping bans
Elite athletes have been issued an unusual but urgent warning: steer clear of one-night stands or risk failing a drug test. At a high-profile anti-doping summit, leading sports lawyers and experts unpacked a growing trend of athletes being caught in doping scandals due to intimate encounters, particularly in the Tinder era where fleeting hookups are harder to trace back. Mark Hovell, a top sports lawyer and the independent chair in tennis star Jannik Sinner's anti-doping case, cited a notorious example: French tennis player Richard Gasquet, who tested positive for cocaine in 2009. Gasquet was later cleared after successfully arguing that the substance entered his system when he kissed a woman in a nightclub. 'Gasquet managed to get her to come and give evidence to say: 'Yes, I'm a cocaine addict. I use cocaine,'' said Hovell. ''I kissed him in this nightclub.' But with a one-night stand, how are you going to be able to find that person again? That's the problem.' When moderator Jacqui Oatley asked if athletes needed to at least get a phone number to protect themselves, Hovell didn't flinch: 'They might not have the evidence they need.' US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) chief Travis Tygart backed Hovell's view, referencing the case of American boxer Virginia Fuchs in 2020. Fuchs tested positive for banned substances but was exonerated after proving the metabolites came from sexual transmission via her male partner. 'I think based on the cases we've seen, watch who you kiss and watch out who you have an intimate relationship with,' Tygart told delegates at the Sports Resolutions conference. He urged the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) to act fast by raising the threshold for trace substances like clostabal and ostarine, compounds that can be passed through sexual contact. Without such reforms, athletes risk bans for minuscule amounts they may not have knowingly ingested. 'I think it's a pretty ridiculous world we're expecting our athletes to live in,' Tygart said. 'Which is why we're pushing to try to change these rules to make it more reasonable and fair.' He added, 'The onus is always on the athletes. We as anti-doping organisations need to take some of that responsibility back. And I worry how many of the intentional cheats are actually getting away because we're spending so much time and resources on the cases that end up being someone kissing someone at a bar.'
Telegraph
01-05-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
Athletes warned kissing strangers and one-night stands risk drug bans
Elite athletes have been warned that even a kiss, let alone a one-night stand with a stranger, could leave themselves open to a career-threatening anti-doping violation. Arguing for a change in the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) code to raise the threshold for substances that can be transported 'through intimacy', Travis Tygart, who heads the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada), said that the current situation risked diverting resources away from catching real cheats. Tygart, who oversaw the operation that exposed Lance Armstrong's US Postal cycling team, is regarded as one of the most foremost anti-doping crusaders in world sport, but he wants greater leniency in this area. The tennis player Richard Gasquet once returned an anti-doping violation after kissing a woman in a nightclub who had been taking cocaine, but won his appeal after the woman herself corroborated his account. Tygart, who was speaking at the annual Sport Resolutions conference in London, also cited an American boxer called Virginia Fuchs, who avoided a suspension after she was able to show that an adverse finding had been caused by sexual transmission from her male partner. 'With Gasquet, he managed to get her to come and give evidence to say, 'Yes, I use cocaine. I kissed him in this nightclub',' said Mark Hovell, a sports lawyer at Mills & Reeve. Asked what would happen if an athlete had a kiss or one-night stand with someone they could not later track down, Hovell said: 'That's the problem – they might not have the evidence they need.' Tygart said that it was 'pathetic' that athletes could be placed in this situation. 'I think based on the cases we've seen: watch who you kiss, watch out who you have an intimate relationship with,' Tygart said. 'I think it's a pretty ridiculous world we're expecting our athletes to live in, which is why we're pushing to try to change these rules to make it more reasonable and fair. 'The onus is always on the athletes – we as anti-doping organisations, need to take some of that responsibility back. And I worry how many of the intentional cheats are actually getting away because we're spending so much time and resources on the cases that end up being someone kissing someone at a bar.' Tygart later explained that, as with some substances on the anti-doping code that are found in food, there were certain substances that can transfer between people through 'intimacy' and that it was simply a question of adjusting the minimum reporting level. Wada dropped a lawsuit against Usada earlier this year after Tygart alleged a cover-up in the handling of 23 Chinese swimmers, who were cleared to compete at the Tokyo Olympics. The China Anti-Doping Agency (Chinada) had said that positive tests for the heart medication trimetazidine (TMZ) were caused by contamination, a finding that Wada said that it could not disprove. It defended its processes and accused Tygart of a 'completely false and defamatory' claim. Tygart said on Thursday that China had still faced no consequences for a 'failure to follow the rules' and said that, according to a new study of the Tokyo and Paris Games, potentially 96 medals were impacted by the 23 swimmers who still competed. 'Until we get reasonable answers and honest answers, nobody should let it go away,' Tygart said. 'The big picture is you're talking 96 medals... 96 potential medals that the world deserves to know. And clean athletes certainly deserve to know. 'If we can't get Wada right, our athletes and others around the world are going to suffer by not having a fair and level playing field. We [the US in 2028] don't want to host a Sochi Olympic Games where dozens, if not more medals, are ultimately returned because the cheating was so rampant at those Games, as we now know.' Chinada says that the swimmers had not broken anti-doping rules and that the results were caused by contamination.
Times
01-05-2025
- Sport
- Times
Avoid one-night stands to prevent drug contamination, athletes told
Elite athletes have been warned against one-night stands and other forms of casual sex by anti-doping experts because of the risk of being contaminated with banned drugs. At a conference in London on Thursday, experts called for a change to anti-doping rules to make a clearer distinction between intentional cheating and forms of contamination, including via sexual transmission. But until the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) code has addressed the issue, athletes are being reminded that they could find themselves in trouble under strict liability rules if they attempt to blame a sexual encounter but cannot produce a witness to support their defence. In 2009, the top French tennis player, Richard Gasquet, was cleared by the Court of Arbitration for Sport after it was accepted that his positive test for a metabolite of cocaine was 'probably' caused by kissing a woman in a nightclub. The woman in question gave evidence, which proved crucial. In 2020 Virginia Fuchs, an American boxer, was also cleared of doping by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) when it emerged that her male partner was using therapeutic doses of GW1516, a banned drug that boosts endurance. The metabolites detected in her sample 'were consistent with recent exposure to the substances via sexual transmission'. At the Sports Resolutions Annual Conference in London, Mark Hovell, a leading sports lawyer who chaired the independent panel for the doping case between the International Tennis Integrity Agency and the world No1, Jannik Sinner — who maintained his innocence but accepted a three-month ban from Wada after two failed tests— cited the Gasquet case. 'He managed to get her to give evidence,' Hovell said. 'To say, 'I used cocaine and I kissed him in this nightclub.' But with this one-night stand, how are you going to be able to find that person again? That's the problem.' Hovell was then asked if, by that, he meant an athlete might have a problem if they could not find the person they were blaming for the contamination. 'They might not have the evidence they need,' he said. Travis Tygart, the chief executive of Usada, said: 'It's so pathetic that we're having this conversation. But I think based on the cases we've seen, watch who you kiss. Watch out who you have an intimate relationship with. 'To tell that to elite athletes, I think it's a pretty ridiculous world we're expecting our athletes to live in, which is why we're pushing to try to change these rules to make it more reasonable and fair. The onus is always on the athletes. We as anti-doping organisations need to take some of that responsibility back. 'And I worry how many of the intentional cheats are actually getting away because we're spending so much time and resources on the cases that end up being someone kissing someone at a bar. 'Really, it's incredible to think that you have to tell athletes to be careful who they may have intimate relationships with. And it's why we have to change the system, so that's not the world that elite level athletes are expected to live under.' Tygart explained what changes needed to be made, among which would be classing such cases as atypical findings rather than adverse analytical findings. 'There's a handful of substances that you could say at certain levels, and we're talking very, very low levels, you put in an MRL [minimum reporting level],' he said. 'Wada is already doing it for clenbuterol, meat enhancers, and diuretics. Add a few more substances to that, Clostebol would be one of those, because we know it can transfer between people through intimacy. Ostarine is another.' Tygart has been at the forefront in criticising Wada for its handling of the case involving 23 Chinese swimmers who went unpunished despite testing positive for Trimetazidine (TMZ) before the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021. Wada accepted the Chinese anti-doping agency's explanation that the positives were caused by mass contamination in a hotel kitchen. Usada now estimates the participation of the Chinese swimmers in both Tokyo and last summer's Paris Games had an impact on 96 medals. 'It has been a year since China's failure to follow the rules resulted in no consequences; Wada didn't do anything about it,' Tygart said. 'Arguably, they should have gotten four years. TMZ is in the category of four years, unless they prove source and they prove no intent. Unfortunately the process wasn't followed. They were swept under the carpet. 'People are still talking about the restoration of medals from East Germany, going back 40 or 50 years. And yet we now have evidence that 96 potentially were impacted. And the system, for whatever reason, is not willing to get to the bottom of it in a real and meaningful way.' Wada appointed an 'independent prosecutor', based in Switzerland, to review the evidence but Tygart said the Americans, who have withheld their government funding of Wada, want a prosecutor not selected by the agency to study the evidence and determine if the rules have been followed. 'We called from the beginning for an independent prosecutor, not a hand-selected reviewer,' he said. 'The US government has asked, and we support, for an independent code compliance audit. Because it's not just these Chinese cases that we're concerned about.'
BBC News
21-02-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Wada drops lawsuit against Usada and Tygart
The World Anti-Doping Agency has dropped its lawsuit against the United States Anti-Doping Agency over a dispute about Chinese swimmers testing positive for a banned substance in 23 swimmers were cleared to compete at the Tokyo Olympics by Wada after it found it could not disprove the China Anti-Doping Agency's conclusion that the positive tests for heart medication trimetazidine (TMZ) were caused by chief executive Travis Tygart accused Wada of a cover-up - a claim Wada rejected as "completely false and defamatory" before it filed a defamation lawsuit in Swiss court against Usada and said it remains "convinced" the lawsuit would have been successful but has withdrawn it in the "interest of moving on".Tygart said Wada dropping the "baseless" lawsuit is "complete vindication" for himself and Usada. After the case involving the Chinese swimmers became public in April last year, an independent investigation by Swiss prosecutor Eric Cottier in July said Wada did not show bias and acted was again critical and called on Wada to conduct a "more thorough" audit by an investigator appointed by a neutral third between the two organisations have since remained July, Wada said Usada would face a compliance review, while the International Olympic Committee (IOC) altered the hosting contract for the 2034 Winter Olympics to allow it to strip Salt Lake City of the Games if US authorities did not respect the "supreme authority" of month, Usada said it "fully" supported the US government's decision to withhold a payment of $3.6m (£2.8m) to said by dropping its lawsuit it was "putting this behind us and moving forward in collaboration with our stakeholders for the good of all athletes around the world".However, it also said it determined it is "futile to argue with somebody who is unwilling to accept clear evidence, whose only goal is to damage Wada and the global anti-doping system, and who has no desire to find a resolution".Tygart remained critical of Wada in response, calling its actions "retaliatory, wasteful and abusive".He added: "It's time for those who value clean sport to step up and get Wada right, as athletes deserve a fair, robust global watchdog to protect their rights to fair competition."Wada confirmed it has also dropped an ethics case against former US Office of National Drug Control Policy director Rahul Gupta, who represented the US on Wada's executive board.
