By Cameron Elford
March 14, 2007 -- Magali Messmer, the Swiss triathlete who won the bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney, Australia, Olympics, has received a three-month suspension from competition stemming from a doping positive at the European championships in June 2006 in Autun, France.
According to news reports, Messmer, 35, tested positive for salbutamol, sold under the brand name Ventolin. Salbutamol is a commonplace drug, in use since the early 1970s, designed to control asthma. Messmer, who has has suffered from asthma since 1998, claims that she has been granted a therapeutic exemption by the Swiss Olympic committee, which authorized her to use the drug.
At issue, however, for the French anti-doping agency (AFLD), which conducted the Autun test, is the relatively high level of salbutamol found in Messmer’s June 2006 urine sample. Although the amount of the drug found measured below the maximum allowed by the World Anti-Doping Agency, the AFLD noted that the June 2006 sample registed 25 percent higher than in a May 2006 test, leading the AFLD to conclude that Mesmer had misused the medication – presumably in an effort to gain a competitive advantage at the European championship race last June.
Messmer and the Swiss Triathlon Federation, however, have refused to accept the French ruling and plan to challenge to the AFLD ban in the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport. Messmer’s representatives state that evidence collected indicates numerous physiological factors, including dehydration, can affect the outcome of the salbutamol test. According to a statement on Messmer’s Web site, her test was conducted while she was in a dehydrated condition following a hot, challenging race.
“At the time of the [European championship] race, many athletes finished the race in a state of advanced dehydration,” says Messmer in a statement on her Web site. “The Swiss federation doctor noted my advanced state of dehydration . . . and the control took place the following day at the end of a second difficult race in two days. . . . It is completely normal that the rates found in the two situations are different.”
Messmer’s suspension, which runs from Jan. 10, 2007 to April 10, 2007, and only bans her from racing France-based events during this period, is unlikely to significantly impact her 2007 racing schedule. Of far greater import, however, is the cloud of suspicion that hovers over accused dopers – as was the case with Belgium’s Rutger Beke, who fought a competition ban for months before proving the testing protocol was flawed and did not account for his unique physiological condition.
“I am very shaken by this and the effect it has on my reputation and my image,” said Messmer. “The scandal-mongering very quickly does its work and the rumors circulate.”
Messmer and Swiss Triathlon have pledged to fight the AFLD charge and associated suspension.