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Gil Roberts: Sprinter says he ingested banned substance by kissing girlfriend

Shiggy

Member
Olympic gold medallist Gil Roberts has been cleared of failing a drugs test, after it was found he ingested a banned substance by kissing his girlfriend.

The 28-year-old American, who won 4x400m relay gold at Rio 2016, tested positive for probenecid on 24 March. Although Roberts was cleared at an arbitration hearing on 20 June, the details have just been released by the US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada). An arbitrator said the athlete was "without fault".

Probenecid is used to treat to high levels of uric acid in the blood, and can be used as a masking agent because it increases the production of urine. After Roberts failed an out-of-competition test, he was provisionally suspended on 5 May. He competed in the 400m at last month's US track and field championships, qualifying for August's World Championships in London by finishing second.

A few weeks before his failed test, Roberts' girlfriend Alex Salazar had been taking medication for a sinus infection which contained probenecid. Salazar took the medicine on the day of Roberts' test and the pair kissed shortly after.

"Whenever they were together, they kissed frequently and passionately," said the report from the American Arbitration Association.

Roberts said he did not know Salazar was taking the medicine and was unaware that kissing could lead to him ingesting any banned substance.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/40613013


The Russians must be angry that they didn't come up with a story like this.
 
D

Deleted member 231381

Unconfirmed Member
Seriously? Kiss my ass!

A tennis player (Richard Gasquet) claimed he tested positive for cocaine due to a kiss from a randomer at a night club.

I just wanted to share that anecdote.
 
Don't confuse testing positive with actual intent to cheat. I would need to read what the actual results were that tested positive, because for them to believe kissing his girlfriend as a legitimate reason that triggered it, then I can only assume that the actual results showed trace amounts so low it could only come from something like that.
 

shira

Member
I can't wait for the sex version of this.

Honestly IOC judge guy. We had really rough sex and we were both bleeding. That's how her prescribed PED's got into my blood stream.
 

Fox318

Member
I can't wait for the sex version of this.

Honestly IOC judge guy. We had really rough sex and we were both bleeding. That's how her prescribed PED's got into my blood stream.

I swear I've heard a story of a female athlete claiming she failed a piss test because somebody ejaculated inside of her and she claimed it raised her T/E ratio.
 
So it's okay to compete with drugs in your system as long as the delivery mechanism is plausibly deniable?

Test results can determine the amount in your system and they can measure it against the amount needed to show actual intent of cheating.

The boxer Andre Berto is a good textbook example that showed his trace amounts were so low in his failed positive drug test that the belief that one of his permissible drug bottles was contaminated was a viable excuse.
 

Jedi2016

Member
Don't confuse testing positive with actual intent to cheat. I would need to read what the actual results were that tested positive, because for them to believe kissing his girlfriend as a legitimate reason that triggered it, then I can only assume that the actual results showed trace amounts so low it could only come from something like that.
I would think they would test for details like that, in light of his excuse.

Most drug tests simply indicate the presence of a drug, with no indication whatsoever of how much is actually there. Further testing must be done to determine the actual amount of the substance, and then they bounce that off of whatever threshold they've (hopefully) set to determine, as you said, intent to cheat.

That goes back to the thing where you eat a bunch of poppy seed muffins, and then test positive for opiates on a drug test (I think Mythbusters actually did that one once). That actually happened to my dad once, but he was cleared when they dug deeper and found out he didn't have near enough in his system to indicate any kind of actual drug use.
 
I would think they would test for details like that, in light of his excuse.

Most drug tests simply indicate the presence of a drug, with no indication whatsoever of how much is actually there. Further testing must be done to determine the actual amount of the substance, and then they bounce that off of whatever threshold they've (hopefully) set to determine, as you said, intent to cheat.

That goes back to the thing where you eat a bunch of poppy seed muffins, and then test positive for opiates on a drug test (I think Mythbusters actually did that one once). That actually happened to my dad once, but he was cleared when they dug deeper and found out he didn't have near enough in his system to indicate any kind of actual drug use.

Oh I know it's from further tests after testing positive. I've seen it occur with several boxers when they tested positive after doing Olympic style testing and the followup months after to determine the outcome after the results from further tests and it was fascinating as I learned so much.

However to the general public, anytime they hear somebody tested positive they automatically believe they were trying to cheat and even after further testing shows otherwise, they refuse to believe and go back to the fact that the person tested positive.

I'm pretty certain this case was after further tests since his positive test was on March 24.
 
If a banned substance is found they should be disqualified no matter what. It doesn't matter how it got there. Otherwise you'll get lies and excuses like this.

Also. If further testing is possible, OF COURSE figure it out. Shouldn't be hard to see what's actually going on here.
 
Oh I know it's from further tests after testing positive. I've seen it occur with several boxers when they tested positive after doing Olympic style testing and the followup months after to determine the outcome after the results from further tests and it was fascinating as I learned so much.

However to the general public, anytime they hear somebody tested positive they automatically believe they were trying to cheat and even after further testing shows otherwise, they refuse to believe and go back to the fact that the person tested positive.

I'm pretty certain this case was after further tests since his positive test was on March 24.

That's enlightening, thanks for the background!
 
If a banned substance is found they should be disqualified no matter what. It doesn't matter how it got there. Otherwise you'll get lies and excuses like this.

An athlete is definitely responsible for what goes in their body, and he was immediately suspended after they tested his B sample in May.

This arbitration overruled the suspension.

However reading more about his girlfriend getting a sinus infection in India a few weeks before Gil's March test and being prescribed a capsule of Moxylong per day for a period of two weeks by a "chemist' looks rather suspicious.
 
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