Thursday, September 30, 2010

Contador: Positive for Doping at the Tour

In the news this morning was the announcement that Alberto Contador, the winner of this years Tour de France, had tested positive for a prohibited substance. You can read about it here. This seems to be a dietary supplement or other accidental contamination problem due to the low level that was measured and the multiple other tests taken during the tour. The problem is that a presumed clean rider should never be placed in the compromising position of having to defend himself for a substance that he didn't he had ingested. Even with team doctors clearing all supplements and medecine being prescribed there is no sure way to avoid all prohibited substances. In the late 90's when performance enhancing drug use was revealed to be pervasive in sports; the world went about creating a treaty that defined the code of conduct on doping for international sport competitions. We need a treaty that deals with dietary supplements since they are not highly regulated in most countries. If they are properly labeled then athletes will be able to avoid accidentally consuming prohibited substances. Let's all hope that Contador is proven innocent and doesn't have to serve a two year ban.

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