The best doping excuse ever?

[spesh]

Contaminated beef... Pffft! Contador should have tried being a bit more imaginative. 

Fatima Yvelain is a regional-level distance runner in France. I suspect you had not heard of her until now but she enters history with one of the best ever excuses for a positive doping test.

Following a positive test for EPO after a half-marathon, she claimed heavy rainfall on the day of race had caused water to stream over hidden medical waste somewhere near the course. As she ran, the EPO-laced rainwater splashed onto her shorts, thus contaminating her urine when she later provided a sample at the doping control.

Needless (to say - Ed) athletics website VO2.fr reports the French Athletics Federation didn’t believe a word. She is banned for two years.

Update: this is no hoax story. You can read the official sanction from the French Athletics Federation here (PDF, in French).

Source: http://inrng.tumblr.com/post/29472905178/itsrainingepo

[andygates]

I'd have to describe that as the worst doping excuse ever.  The best, surely, would have worked.

[citoyen]

When Ryan Lochte admitted that he pissed in the Olympic pool, it did get me wondering... Suppose a swimmer who is using EPO pees in the pool (not suggesting that Lochte is, btw), what are the chances of it contaminating another swimmer?

(Pretty slim, I'd have thought, but it's only a matter of time before someone tries to use it as an excuse.)

d.

[Nuncio]

Dilute that Lochte-contaminated swimming pool water several times over and you might be able to sell it to gullible aspiring olympic swimmers, and the drug would be undetectable.  It's probably no coincidence that you can't spell homeopathy without e, p and o.

[TheLurker]

Dilute that Lochte-contaminated swimming pool water several times over and you might be able to sell it to gullible aspiring olympic swimmers, and the drug would be undetectable.  It's probably no coincidence that you can't spell homeopathy without e, p and o.

Bumper sticker seen on the back of a car in Ciren last week, "Homeopathy Awareness Week...".  Quoth MrsLurker, "The less you tell people about it the more they'll know about it."

[Karla]

Dilute that Lochte-contaminated swimming pool water several times over and you might be able to sell it to gullible aspiring olympic swimmers, and the drug would be undetectable.  It's probably no coincidence that you can't spell homeopathy without e, p and o.

I've been thinking about selling undetectable homeopathic PEDs to athletes for a while now, do you want to go into business?

[spesh]

When Ryan Lochte admitted that he pissed in the Olympic pool, it did get me wondering...

Time to add the urine-reactive indicator dye to the pool at competitive events. 

[geraldc]

http://www.topendsports.com/medicine/doping-excuses.htm

Dennis Mitchell's was my favourite

[spesh]

http://www.topendsports.com/medicine/doping-excuses.htm

Dennis Mitchell's was my favourite

Kind of undermined by a comment I'd seen elsewhere from one of the British Cycling coaching staff, who said that they could always tell when the cyclists were getting it on because the mens' performance in training dropped, while the reverse was true for the women.

[citoyen]

Kind of undermined by a comment I'd seen elsewhere from one of the British Cycling coaching staff, who said that they could always tell when the cyclists were getting it on because the mens' performance in training dropped, while the reverse was true for the women.

There's a brilliant episode of Seinfeld based on precisely that premise.

d.