Drugs in Sport

[Macy]

I even look askew at football now, these supposed "kids" coming into the game from Academies are massive!
Even football? Football is high up on the lists of crap testing/ lots of money/ lots of benefits from doping. This weeks european games show the impact that increased stamina can have.

I really don't get the focus on the sizes of players coming out of academies - there's other variables that come into play at that age, so that's not where I'd be looking for indicators tbh. For a start the size they went in - they could be selected and fasttracked because of their size. Players bulking up fast, returning from injury ridiculously quickly, late bloomers who late in their career are better physically than they ever were before are better indicators of something that needs investigation than the size of young guys just starting. For example, Leinster have in the past scouted players just because of their size who'd never even played rugby.

[Spudulika]

Even football? Football is high up on the lists of crap testing/ lots of money/ lots of benefits from doping. This weeks european games show the impact that increased stamina can have.

I really don't get the focus on the sizes of players coming out of academies - there's other variables that come into play at that age, so that's not where I'd be looking for indicators tbh. For a start the size they went in - they could be selected and fasttracked because of their size. Players bulking up fast, returning from injury ridiculously quickly, late bloomers who late in their career are better physically than they ever were before are better indicators of something that needs investigation than the size of young guys just starting. For example, Leinster have in the past scouted players just because of their size who'd never even played rugby.

Macy, by massive I don't mean just body build, of course improved nutrition etc will make current generations bigger than before, but the energy and activity just surpasses anything that I could say was normal. Football has always been tainted by doping of some sort, not just recently, and the higher up you go the more you get, the Spanish (it can be argued) have it to an art form, though who can tell for sure. Nobody worth much will be pulled up.

I was told a very honest story from a former director of ours regarding peds, she simply said - imagine you have a serve coming at you at 150kmph, over such a short distance, the best trained professional will block it back, but watch the top players, they'll adjust, move and play a shot back - which puts them past the middle rankers. She said that it wasn't just juicing up in the off season that does this, she claimed that players were taking things to "pep them up" before matches. It could be true, who knows, but when you see so many young athletes passing away before time....

[Mr A]

Some doping in Horse Racing: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/horse-racing/22258011

Again, hardly a surprise.

[Stuttgart88]

Hmm. Horsemeat in supermarket burgers and lasagne. Steroids in horses. Alberto Contador was telling the truth all along!

[Mad Moose]

Some doping in Horse Racing: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/horse-racing/22258011

Again, hardly a surprise.


While I love the sport and love horses I'm not shocked by the presence of performance enhancing drugs in the sport. The real shock here is the fact this has been uncovered at a stable as large and elite as Godolphin. I'm glad they have been found out and exposed but I can't understand how they could be so naïve here. Waiting for the story to unravel.

On drugs in sport. I'll post the link to a fascinating documentary called the 'Record Fakers' on BBC 5 Live at the minute which examines the legacy of state control of sport in East Germany pre 1989. Very harrowing and sad tales of crimes against humanity.

[Mad Moose]

A link to the BBC programme on doping in track and field.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01s0qbt/5_live_Sport_5_live_Track_and_Field_The_Record_Fak ers/

[Mr A]

Enjoyed this piece on doping in cycling: http://crankpunk.com/2013/04/25/a-slightly-over-impassioned-response-to-a-message-that-i-probably-shouldnt-post-but-what-the-hell/

[SkStu]

@Giggs_Boson is a decent journalist to follow on twitter regarding the Fuentes situation. He just posted:

"Spanish anti-doping is appealing Judge's decision to destroy the evidence. Bags held in storage until appeal is heard."

https://twitter.com/giggs_boson/status/329269165745639424

Crazy ruling!

[Macy]

Completely ridiculous ruling. If it looks like a cover up, walks like a cover up...

[Mr A]

Hardly surprising unfortunately. Spain has a pretty abysmal record on the doping front. Hopefully the appeal is successful and the documentation at least becomes public.

Vijay Singh gets away with it: http://espn.go.com/golf/story/_/id/9228687/vijay-singh-not-suspended-taking-deer-antler-spray

Deco tests positive: http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2931/go-global/2013/04/30/3944484/former-chelsea-player-deco-fails-doping-test?source=breakingnews&ICID=HP_HL_1

[BonnieShels]

@Giggs_Boson is a decent journalist to follow on twitter regarding the Fuentes situation. He just posted:

"Spanish anti-doping is appealing Judge's decision to destroy the evidence. Bags held in storage until appeal is heard."

https://twitter.com/giggs_boson/status/329269165745639424

Crazy ruling!

I totally misread that this morning on my phone. I read it like Spanish AD wanted the bags destroyed. An insane ruling. More needs to be made of this than is at present, he says shouting into the wind.

[BonnieShels]

Hardly surprising unfortunately. Spain has a pretty abysmal record on the doping front. Hopefully the appeal is successful and the documentation at least becomes public.

Vijay Singh gets away with it: http://espn.go.com/golf/story/_/id/9228687/vijay-singh-not-suspended-taking-deer-antler-spray

Deco tests positive: http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2931/go-global/2013/04/30/3944484/former-chelsea-player-deco-fails-doping-test?source=breakingnews&ICID=HP_HL_1

I love how all these super famous sports people can walk into a pharmacy and buy these vitamin supplements that contain these banned substances.
Surely the pharmacists need to be questioned as they are a medical practitioner who need to advise their customers of using such medication and supplements.

I mean you can't by solpadeine without getting the Inquisition. It's almost as if there's no pharmacist at all involved...

[gastric]

In regards to the Aussie Rules drug scandal, the guy who prescribed the drugs (which are anti-obesity type drugs) claimed he had a letter from WADA saying the drugs were not banned. Essendon, the club in question, accepted that and let this bloke Dank inject the players. Now WADA are saying that ignorance is no defence and any player involved could face severe bans. (The club have admitted they now believe the drugs given were in fact banned substances.)

While I appreciate zero tolerance to drugs is right, in this case unless the players could analyse the drugs themselves, how the hell were they to know what exactly they were taking? They took what they were told were vitamin supplements in good faith, and it will be interesting to see how all this pans out.

[BonnieShels]

In regards to the Aussie Rules drug scandal, the guy who prescribed the drugs (which are anti-obesity type drugs) claimed he had a letter from WADA saying the drugs were not banned. Essendon, the club in question, accepted that and let this bloke Dank inject the players. Now WADA are saying that ignorance is no defence and any player involved could face severe bans. (The club have admitted they now believe the drugs given were in fact banned substances.)

While I appreciate zero tolerance to drugs is right, in this case unless the players could analyse the drugs themselves, how the hell were they to know what exactly they were taking? They took what they were told were vitamin supplements in good faith, and it will be interesting to see how all this pans out.

But ignorance is never a defence.

Get two doctors. Have an independent AFL panel. There's always a solution.
A club as big as Essendon should be capable of that.

[Charlie Darwin]

I love how all these super famous sports people can walk into a pharmacy and buy these vitamin supplements that contain these banned substances.
Surely the pharmacists need to be questioned as they are a medical practitioner who need to advise their customers of using such medication and supplements.

I mean you can't by solpadeine without getting the Inquisition. It's almost as if there's no pharmacist at all involved...
I can get you as many Nurofen Plus as you need. How many are you looking for, 12? 24?

[DannyInvincible]

A fascinating read on suspected doping cases in football down through the decades: http://www.4dfoot.com/2013/02/09/doping-in-football-fifty-years-of-evidence/

[Spudulika]

Tyson Gay and a bunch of Jamaicans on the way. Yohan Blake looking dodgy pulling out of Moscow with "injury" and Chris Froome zooming up the mountains. Interesting times.

[Charlie Darwin]

On a similar note, over the weekend I was reading this timeline of Rafael Nadal's history of injury (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/08/tennis-has-a-doping-problem.html).

[Dodge]

In fairness to Blake, he's been out with a hamsting injury for a while now (April I think). It's certainly possible that that's a co-incidence

[Mr A]

There was a load of Turkish athletes caught recently too.

GAS6 seems to be the new drug the rumours are swirling around. There's a bit on it here although the necessity to use google translate makes it difficult to follow: http://translate.google.com/translate?tl=en&sourceid=ie8-activity&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guillaumeprebois.com%2Fblogs%2F mon-blog%2F8322149-gas6-la-nouvelle-molecule-des-dopes

[Spudulika]

In fairness to Blake, he's been out with a hamsting injury for a while now (April I think). It's certainly possible that that's a co-incidence

I read last month he might miss out but that he'd likely make it. He has form though (2009 banning) and it probably is just bad timing.

CD, Nadal is playing in one of the worst regulated sports going and there is almost no effort (concerted) to make a change. I am fully convinced that to break the top 50 you have to take something. People get caught, slapped on the wrist and play on. But since Nadal is so high profile and has won so much, to out him would devastate the sport. For any star we'll have to wait until they're not worth as much.

[Charlie Darwin]

The numbers of OOC blood tests being done in tennis is shockingly low. It's fractions of what goes on in cycling, which is still far from clean. Given how tennis is edging closer to becoming a pure endurance sport, there has to be some reason they're not being more stringent.

[Stuttgart88]

@Giggs_Boson is a decent journalist to follow on twitter regarding the Fuentes situation. He just posted:

"Spanish anti-doping is appealing Judge's decision to destroy the evidence. Bags held in storage until appeal is heard."

https://twitter.com/giggs_boson/status/329269165745639424

Crazy ruling!I was at a sports industry networking event at the KIA Oval recently. I met a guy from UK Anti-Doping and he said the ruling was entirely correct when I suggested it smacked of a cover-up. From a legal perspective the judge had absolutely no option under Spanish law but to order the evidence to be destroyed. I don't know exactly what the ins and outs were but I suppose it adds another perspective.

[Dodge]

it boiled down to the case being a medical hearing, not a sporting one. The judge had to destroy the medical records (blood bags) rather than destroy evidence in a sporting context.

The case was against Dr Fuentes not treating his patients with their best medical interests in mind, rather than against him helping sports stars cheat.

[Spudulika]

The ruling in Fuentes and the actions after were lawful but not ethical, or rather not moral. It would be wrong to say the Spanish court were covering up, they did what they could to uncover the culture in the country which allowed all sorts to go on and had to stick to the letter of the law. But in Spain, Italy and Germany there are so many loopholes for doping to take place.

CD is hitting the nail on the head, tennis is rotten. Viktor Troiki just got banned for 18months, there are so many inconsistencies in the case. He gave a urine sample, the next day (having been given leave by the tester) gave a blood test, and it turned out that both tests were negative. Yet he got banned on a technicality.

In tennis there are silent bans, which the ITF try to deny but they're complicit in it, and rotten academies, yet nobody wants to open the door to what could pour out.

[Acornvilla]

Viktor Troicki was just handed an 18 month ban from tennis last week for refusing to produce a sample for testing apparently. It follows Cillic getting a 3 month ban during Wimbledon.

There normally isn't very many guys done for doping in Tennis so it's a bit mad seeing two in quick succession, both pleading innocence obviously.

[Spudulika]

There are lots done AV, just that it normally is in house, from what I've seen. With the amount of activity around the world (just at a professional level) there is little the ITF can do when they don't fund their anti-doping system.

Some really funny posters here in Moscow, they have billboards of Tyson Gay and Usain Bolt with the heading - face-to-face. Nobody seems bothered anymore.

[Acornvilla]

The Cillic ban has certainly been kept very quiet anyway, It took over a month before word got out.

I seen Andy Murray making some bitter tweets about cheats a few weeks ago. It's hard to know with them lads, tennis is an incredibly tough sport at the top level.Just going through some of the notable Tennis player bans in the last 10 years or so. No really big names banned for performance enhancers, bar Cillic (his is a bit dubious) and now Troicki). It's usually #50-100 ranked guys.

Wayne Odesnik is the most cut and dry case, 2 year ban for human growth hormones in 2010, he was the only one I knew about aside from Cillic and Troicki..

Richard Gasquet - Few months out for testing positive with Cocaine in his system.

Martina Hingis - Cocaine too!

Lourdes Domingues Lino - Cocaine.. what kind of partys do these people go to!!

Alex Bogmolov Jr. 1.5 month ban for filling incorrect paperwork on the inhaler he was taking..

Fillipo Volandri - 3 month ban for ''asthma medication''.

Karol Beck in 2005, 2 year ban for clenbeturol whatever that is..

Ivo Minar had a 2 year ban reduced to 8 months after the ITF accepted he had taken a banned substance by accident..



A 16 year old Bulgarian wta player got banned this month too apparently, for proper performance enhancing drugs, no cocaine at all!

[Macy]

The ruling in Fuentes and the actions after were lawful but not ethical, or rather not moral. It would be wrong to say the Spanish court were covering up, they did what they could to uncover the culture in the country which allowed all sorts to go on and had to stick to the letter of the law. But in Spain, Italy and Germany there are so many loopholes for doping to take place.
How come the cyclists get identified, and the footballers/ other sports protected on a technicality? That's where the cover up is - what's good for one sport, should be good for the others.

[Spudulika]

How come the cyclists get identified, and the footballers/ other sports protected on a technicality? That's where the cover up is - what's good for one sport, should be good for the others.

Macy, you're right, and it is a complete cover up, and it's kind of like the usual bit of picking on the least defensible part of sports (in society it's usually white male 16-70), athletics also gets a belting but nobody is surprised. I firmly believe it's all about where the money goes. As I stand by, my old company and my new one will not allow a player go to training camps in Spain (or academies), Italy, France and Germany - in that order. Also some of the increased performances of average players always catches my eye, especially when you meet them and suddenly they're muscled up and quite different to before. Last year (I think it was at the US Open) I heard Serena Williams complaining about testing and how players shouldn't have to be "on demand", this is the same person who wasn't tested for 18 months and who has had 2 in the past 3 years. It's a joke and the authorities and sponsors don't want any flak hitting them.

AV, great list, and just something that has the fishiest smell (not from you of course :-) ) cocaine! Now, I've been around many tennis players and cocaine is usually not the drug of choice, especially for men. However....cocaine or substances with such properties are often used as masking agents. Some years ago a young Bulgarian (Karatantcheva) was done for using ped's, she first claimed it was because she was pregnant (had an abortion) and thus the nandrolone found could be explained. However it was thrown out and the pregnancy excuse denied. She's since sold herself to Kazakhstan (along with lots of other players) and is playing the circuit. But there was something completely covered up.

The girl was 15 at the time of the test, and supposedly she'd "conceived" at 14, her coach then was well known to have been involved in her and is still on the circuit working with young women. No sanction was taken against him, no questions asked, nothing. So in short, tennis has a heck of a lot of things to clean up but still doesn't do it.

[Spudulika]

The Cillic ban has certainly been kept very quiet anyway, It took over a month before word got out.

I seen Andy Murray making some bitter tweets about cheats a few weeks ago. It's hard to know with them lads, tennis is an incredibly tough sport at the top level.Just going through some of the notable Tennis player bans in the last 10 years or so. No really big names banned for performance enhancers, bar Cillic (his is a bit dubious) and now Troicki). It's usually #50-100 ranked guys.

Wayne Odesnik is the most cut and dry case, 2 year ban for human growth hormones in 2010, he was the only one I knew about aside from Cillic and Tr He started naming names, turned whistleblower and has been effectively cold shouldered by other pros.

Richard Gasquet - Few months out for testing positive with Cocaine in his system. From getting the shift - really!

Martina Hingis - Cocaine too!

Lourdes Domingues Lino - Cocaine.. what kind of partys do these people go to!!

Alex Bogmolov Jr. 1.5 month ban for filling incorrect paperwork on the inhaler he was taking..

Fillipo Volandri - 3 month ban for ''asthma medication''.

Karol Beck in 2005, 2 year ban for clenbeturol whatever that is. I think that's what Ben Johnson took and he blamed his mother's headache pill or a drink in a nightclub.

Ivo Minar had a 2 year ban reduced to 8 months after the ITF accepted he had taken a banned substance by accident..



A 16 year old Bulgarian wta player got banned this month too apparently, for proper performance enhancing drugs, no cocaine at all!

Agassi wrote he used crystal meth to get a boost. Greg Rusedski was let off because his supplements were "contaminated" and there are lots of players who were hauled up and hit. But they keep it very quiet.

[Acornvilla]

Been reading up more on this, McEnroe was on steroids for pain apparently, he pleads of course that he didn't know what they were, there's also constant questions hanging over Mr. Nadal.

There was a few more let offs and reduced bans I didn't bother to list from lesser known players also.

I've seen a good few interviews from Agassi on the matter, he says he used to have to take quite a lot of tests and can't understand how a lot of his peers seemed never to be tested.

[Spudulika]

Testing is terrible at best in tennis, it makes football look positively monastic by comparison. I don't know if it still exists, but there was a blog or article about it and while it was useful, they had an overload of info on it. It was about steroids in tennis. I'll have to check if I saved the link.

Sad thing is, young players quickly find out what they have to do and their parents go hand in hand with it.

[Charlie Darwin]

Testing is terrible at best in tennis, it makes football look positively monastic by comparison. I don't know if it still exists, but there was a blog or article about it and while it was useful, they had an overload of info on it. It was about steroids in tennis. I'll have to check if I saved the link.

Sad thing is, young players quickly find out what they have to do and their parents go hand in hand with it.
http://tennishasasteroidproblem.blogspot.ie/

[Spudulika]

Thanks for that CD, I'd forgotten the address and I just noticed it's .ie . I know they slam the head of testing for the ITF, though having spoken to and had contact with the man, I think some of it is unfair. Ultimately the local federations should control it, and tournament organisers. However ultimately it's the players themselves who are cheating. Heard a good one yesterday from my colleague (who still plays selected events on the tour, and quite well too). She was at a tournament in Germany 2 weeks ago, tester walked in. asked for x, y and z players, y was there in the locker room, z had lost the day before and was on the road to her next tournament (Egypt) and x was on the practice court. So he made some ticks and told another player she'd to do a test - she'd just staggered in from +32 degrees, 3 sets and was dehydrated.

Result - x and y did the tests, z was marked as having missed her test, and z1 spend an hour trying to give a sufficient sample and had to retire from her doubles match 2 hours later as she cramped up from drinking copious amounts of water to do the test.

[Charlie Darwin]

Thanks for that CD, I'd forgotten the address and I just noticed it's .ie .
I wouldn't read anything into that. I think blogspot addresses just default to whatever country you're in, so if you googled it it'd show up as .ru or whatever.

[Spudulika]

Didn't know that, thanks though. It's a pretty interesting read though some of it is a bit stretched. It's a losing battle with tennis at the minute.

[Charlie Darwin]

Surprise, surprise, global superstar and new Barcelona signing Neymar has apparently been diagnosed with anemia (http://espnfc.com/news/story/_/id/1513511/neymar-barcelona-anaemia-keep-training?cc=5739). Now, we all know Spanish sport, football and Barcelona in particular are squeaky clean, but who knows the standard treatment for anemia? If you said EPO and blood transfusions, you might just be right!

There are other treatments of course, but we all know how he's being treated. Barcelona have refused to comment on the specific treatment.

edit: news just coming through that NBA's highest-paid star Alex Rodriguez has been banned (http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/other-sports/baseball-star-alex-rodriguez-among-13-players-suspended-for-doping-offences-1.1485502) for 211 games for doping offences. I don't know much about baseball season but I believe that works out at around 3 hours. Another 12 players have been banned for 50 games apiece.

[BonnieShels]

Surprise, surprise, global superstar and new Barcelona signing Neymar has apparently been diagnosed with anemia (http://espnfc.com/news/story/_/id/1513511/neymar-barcelona-anaemia-keep-training?cc=5739). Now, we all know Spanish sport, football and Barcelona in particular are squeaky clean, but who knows the standard treatment for anemia? If you said EPO and blood transfusions, you might just be right!

There are other treatments of course, but we all know how he's being treated. Barcelona have refused to comment on the specific treatment.

edit: news just coming through that NBA's highest-paid star Alex Rodriguez has been banned (http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/other-sports/baseball-star-alex-rodriguez-among-13-players-suspended-for-doping-offences-1.1485502) for 211 games for doping offences. I don't know much about baseball season but I believe that works out at around 3 hours. Another 12 players have been banned for 50 games apiece.

How dare you disparage against the great team that is Barcelona. Some say you might be cynical Charlie! Not I!

Also A-Rod plays MLB not NBA. You really know nothing about baseball! :P

[BonnieShels]

Barcelona told The Associated Press that "due to an operation on his tonsils this summer the player is suffering a case of anaemia that is being treated and won't impede him from training with normality with the rest of his team-mates".

Really?

[Charlie Darwin]

I'll never make it in Major League Basketball with errors like that :(

[Spudulika]

If anyone heard overnight Marion Bartoli retired after losing in Ohio. I think the WTA will smother the story in lashings and lashings of creamy hot bull, but from the locker room it appears she quit before she was hit. Met her a few times, father was/is a nutjob and she has some serious problems. This year she got working with a very "recognised" strength and fitness coach. I believe more will come from this.

[Mr A]

She's the lady who said (http://www.tennisearth.com/news/tennisNews/Marion-Bartoli-We-have-too-many-drugs-tests-in-tennis-393318.htm) earlier in the year that tennis players get tested too much. Interesting.

Meanwhile.. Neymar signs for Barca. They send him to have his tonsils removed as a "preventative procedure". Now they claim he has anaemia, one of the main treatments for which is ...drum roll.. EPO. The Brazil coaching staff have rubbished the suggestion he has anaemia and doctors have said the chances of becoming anaemic after this operation are remote. All very, very dodgy.

[Charlie Darwin]

If anyone heard overnight Marion Bartoli retired after losing in Ohio. I think the WTA will smother the story in lashings and lashings of creamy hot bull, but from the locker room it appears she quit before she was hit. Met her a few times, father was/is a nutjob and she has some serious problems. This year she got working with a very "recognised" strength and fitness coach. I believe more will come from this.
Was thinking the same thing when I read about it this morning. Going from Wimbledon champion to being crippled by long-term injuries within the space of weeks.

[Spudulika]

CD, it was the strangest thing to see her perform so well at Wimbledon, for sure she had the game for it, but then she hooked up with a specialist coach who has worked with (amongst others) Ferrer and Serena Williams, who also happens to be a best mate of Mouratoglou (Serena's bf) and works at his academy in France. Something wasn't right as soon as it came out and I'd be pretty sure some deal was made.

How can players like Bartoli go for 12 months or more (like Serena Williams) without being tested and the sport is deemed clean? Here at the world champ's in Moscow the jokes are fairly flying about different athletes and athletics in general. People are tired and they look at performances and say...are they clean? It shouldn't be like that. And tennis is worse. A player can make it into the top-200 on talent and good planning (and training), they can push up into the top-100 on a few lucky draws and a Grand Slam event run. But to break the top-50 and for sure top-20, it takes an unhealthy amount of training, stamina and reaction time on court. Just doing the physics calculations on timing, speed etc would have you miss a 140kmph serve!

[geysir]

Surprise, surprise, global superstar and new Barcelona signing Neymar has apparently been diagnosed with anemia (http://espnfc.com/news/story/_/id/1513511/neymar-barcelona-anaemia-keep-training?cc=5739). Now, we all know Spanish sport, football and Barcelona in particular are squeaky clean, but who knows the standard treatment for anemia? If you said EPO and blood transfusions, you might just be right!

There are other treatments of course, but we all know how he's being treated. Barcelona have refused to comment on the specific treatment.

That diagnosis does offer some possible explanation for his sudden frequent fainting fits on the field of play.

[BonnieShels]

That diagnosis does offer some possible explanation for his sudden frequent fainting fits on the field of play.

And imagine he got through the medical with almost flying colours.

[Spudulika]

A baseball player, Taheda, is done for a 3rd time violation. Apparently he was caught using an amphetamine and his excuse is that he suffers from add. Would love to see tennis do the same, juicing up is not just about getting muscles and stamina, it's getting your brain and eyes flying so that a 160kmph serve slows for you. It's not practice, it's all reaction, and no human can be so fast so often.

[Mr A]

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ap-newsbreak-world-doping-agency-probing-jamaica

WADA to probe Jamaican anti doping practises. Basically they didn't test any of their big stars in the run up to the Olympics. Other agencies did though, but this is still worrying.

[DannyInvincible]

A delusional Jimmy Magee is still clutching at straws in defence of Michelle Smith de Bruin: http://www.thescore.ie/jimmy-magee-michelle-smith-2-1135659-Oct2013/


RTÉ SPORTS COMMENTATOR Jimmy Magee has defended his inclusion of Michelle Smith in his new book and insists she was ‘tested more often than Shergar’.

Smith won three gold medals and one bronze from her performances in swimming at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

However she was banned from swimming for four years in 1998 because a drug sample was said to have been tampered with.

Magee defended the disgraced swimmer when speaking to Miriam O’Callaghan this morning on RTÉ Radio 1 about his new book ‘Different Class: Favourite Sporting Memories’.

“Why not? I had Ireland’s best Olympians and to do that, Michelle Smith is one of the few Irish people who’s win a gold medal in the Olympic games.

“She was tested more often than Shergar and never ever anything negative. She was found to have tampered, or somebody had tampered with a sample taken that was taken of her, outside competition long after she had finished.

“In my opinion she should have finished after Atlanta and that’d be the end of the whole thing. One of my daughters was looking at the results and she like a lot of people said ‘you’ve put Michelle in there’.

“I said ‘there’s a list of the results of the last five Olympic swimming champions in that discipline’. She has an inferior time to all the others, the four previous winners. I said ‘if she’s taken something, she should get her money back, she’s slower than all them’.”

Magee conceded that his views are not in line with public opinion on the subject and described himself as ‘a one-man defense counsel’.

‘I know myself. I’m a kind of a one-man defense counsel. I’ll tell you this she did the barrister exam and she was third in all of Ireland.

“To those people that are complaining about her, do you think she was taking something untoward?”

Magee revealed he has not spoken to Smith for some time.

“I haven’t seen her or talked to her in a year and a half. But that doesn’t mean I forget about her.”

She can't possibly have been engaging in doping because she later went on to pass the Irish bar, coming third in Ireland for her examination results in the process? :confused:

What planet is Magee on?