SHANGHAI — While other athletes continue to express concern over the doping ruling for Cesar Cielo, swimming governing body FINA has announced it is “actively considering” adopting a biological passport program.
Cielo, the Olympic and world champion, was cleared to compete at the world championships Thursday after the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld a decision by the Brazilian swimming federation.
FINA had challenged a Brazilian federation decision to give Cielo only a warning after he tested positive for furosemide, a banned diuretic and masking agent, at a meet in Rio de Janeiro in May.
Cielo said he consumed the drug in a contaminated batch of a food supplement he regularly used.
Other recent doping cases involving furosemide have seen athletes banned for up to 14 months.
“I was told numerous times to take measures that whatever you put in your body you’re responsible for,” American sprinter Jason Lezak said Saturday. “Obviously there’s new laws now than over the 15 years that I’ve been swimming, so hopefully people will learn from this and move on. But right now I don’t think there’s a lot of happy people around (the pool).”
Decisions for two other Brazilian swimmers — Nicholas Santos and Henrique Barbosa — were also upheld, while the CAS gave Vinicius Waked, who had previously served a two-month ban for a separate doping offense, a one-year ban.
FINA had appealed for three-month bans for Cielo, Santos and Barbosa; and requested a one-year ban for Waked. Cielo — who won the 50-meter freestyle at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and swept the 50 and 100 frees at the last worlds, is the only one of the four Brazilians competing here.
Biological passports contain continuously updated blood profiles for athletes like those currently used in cycling. Variations from the profile could indicate doping.
“I’m convinced (Cielo) is a champion, no matter what — it’s the system that doesn’t work, and that’s what worries me,” said two-time world champion Filippo Magnini of Italy. “I’m going to race against him and I’ll shake his hand and try to beat him like I always have, but this has created a dangerous precedent.
Doping cases involving supplements have varied greatly.
American swimmer Jessica Hardy withdrew from the U.S. team ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and was later ordered to serve a one-year ban despite the CAS accepting that she was not at fault for a contaminated dietary supplement.
Ukrainian tennis player Kristina Antoniychuk was banned for 14 months even though the International Tennis Federation accepted that furosemide was in a prescription medication.
Russia’s gymnastics body banned Kristina Goryunova for one year after she tested positive for furosemide at the 2010 national championships.
“I was always advised that whoever makes a mistake — whether it’s small or large, indirect or involuntary — will have to pay for it,” added Magnini, according to the ANSA news agency. “We’re tested continually and required to communicate where we are and at what time. It’s always stressful and then you see it’s all for naught because there’s no punishment.
“They’ve also hurt Cielo, because I don’t know how he’s going to present himself,” Magnini said.
FINA president Julio Maglione and executive director Cornel Marculescu said they had done all they could to settle Cielo’s case, and that the CAS ruling had to be accepted.
“We have always told the swimmers, ‘Be careful when you take a supplement, because you never know what you are taking. You don’t know what’s inside,’” Marculescu said.
“The range is huge — from a warning to two years — and I understand that there are swimmers and athletes and people who don’t understand why one gets six months and another get two years,” Marculescu added.
The reasons behind the CAS ruling won’t be released for several weeks.
“CAS is the final level you can go to and they made a final decision and we have to accept that,” said Australia head coach Leigh Nugent. “We are here to race the world championships and it’s unfortunate this issue has come on the eve.
“We have spoken to our team and I’ll observe my own advice — we can’t be distracted by this issue and it’s done and dusted and we are just going to get on with the racing and I’ll get on with preparing my team.”
According to Dr. Andrew Pipe, the chairman of FINA’s doping control review board, creating a biological passport is the only way to detect banned drug use.
“A proposal for a biological passport kind of program for FINA is now being actively considered, and I’m confident that progress will be made in that direction,” Pipe said.
“We know that the contemporary doping issues that all sports face relate not so much in the area of hormonal abuse, because that can be detected with conventional urine tests in or out of competition, but those agents which increase the properties of the blood so it increases the ability of the blood to carry oxygen,” Pipe added.
While the traditional swimming events don’t begin until Sunday, Pipe said 115 doping tests have already been conducted at these championships, with “several hundred” to be completed in all.
No positive tests have been reported so far.
