Just given a warning. She will still play in the Olympics. Can't be easy keeping track of every ingredient in every drug.
doesn't look like too much of a big deal. hope not. "I took a medication prescribed by my personal doctor for pre-menstrual purposes that I did not know contained a diuretic," Solo said in a statement. "Once informed of this fact, I immediately cooperated with USADA and shared with them everything they needed to properly conclude that I made an honest mistake, and that the medication did not enhance my performance in any way."
Here is the USADA press release: http://www.usada.org/media/sanction-solo792012 It appears to be the least severe type of punishment by the USADA. In June, in a similar case, another athlete in another sport accepted a public warning and loss of results from a competition the day the test was taken. Hope is the only US soccer player to have received some sort of public punishment since at least 2002 according to the USADA. http://www.usada.org/sanctions/ It appears that athletes can take steps to avoid this one time innocent issue. There is a USADA drug reference phone line (granted only during business hours M-F) that athletes and others can use. There is also a on line drug reference at USADA.
Canrenone is found in Spironloactone, which is considered an anti-androgen. If she were being treated for "pre-menstrual purposes", not sure why the doctor prescribed her that, as Spironlactone actually causes cramping and is often used treat other issues. I would think that the doctor, considering Hope's high profile status, would put her on something on a prescription of version Pamprin, as opposed to Spironolactone, which could throw off a drug test...
are you suggesting that it doesn't look like it was really a doctor's prescription? and does this mean you know which premenstrual complaint hope had?
We thank Dr. gurl for the expert analysis, no doubt given after a careful examination of the prescribing doctor's notes on exactly which Possible "other issues" he was treating.
Well, I'm not a doctor, pharmacist, or woman, so I really don't have any input - except to say that I hope Hope's state of mind isn't affected too much and that the squad don't let this disrupt their preparations.
This isn't a big deal except it is. If the US win the gold medal at the Olympics there are going to be questions from other countries concerning the USWNT. AS an olympic athlete she didn't have the brains to ask the doctor what's in her medication? She didn't give her doctor a list of banned substances she can't take? People have had to give back gold medals for taking cold medicine, she should be very lucky they didn't ban her from the Olympics. I'm very curious as to why she got away with a slap on the wrist when other athletes have had to give their medals back. Hopefully it doesn't have anything to do with the fact that she's a white woman. Thanks to Hope Solo, the whole USWNT will be under scrutiny during the Olympics with people raising their suspicions and it will be THAT MUCH HARDER to win a gold medal. Thank you Hope...
First, WTF is the "white woman" comment? Second, the games are the games. They are not going to get harder because of this.
huh? white woman? and who has had to give back medals because a prescription given by their doctor metabolised into canrenone? the u.s. used to be very lax in patrolling the performance enhancement front. but they have certainly gotten much stricter. i haven't heard any accusations against them regarding the current usada regime. hardly.
No matter how insignifcant or how it came about, I'm mostly in the same boat. I'm not sure how bad it looks, but it's surprising that it isn't more of a big deal.
Flashback to triple Olympic medalist Silken Laumann 1995: She did what just about everybody else would have done: she had a cold, so she took a pill. But Silken Laumann is not everybody else. The 30-year-old rower is one of Canada's best-loved amateur athletes, an Olympic medallist and a top contender at the Summer Games in Atlanta next year. And at the Pan-Am Games in Mar del Plata, Argentina, Laumann was typically extraordinary, sailing to victory in the women's single sculls final on March 18. The next day, along with crewmates Marnie McBean, Diane O'Grady and Wendy Wiebe, she captured another gold in the women's quadruple event - winning by an 11-second margin over the Cuban boat. Then, the unthinkable: a Games official revealed that Laumann's anti-doping test had shown illegal levels of the banned stimulant pseudo-ephedrine. On March 23, the Pan-American Sports Organization (PASO) revoked the Canadian crew's gold medal. At a news conference in Victoria, where she lives, Laumann lashed out at the decision, saying that she had only inadvertently used a prohibited medication. Canadian Olympic Association (COA) officials began preparing an appeal to try to keep the gold medals and hinted that the incident would not cost Laumann a chance to compete in Atlanta. As the participants hurled accusations and ducked blame, one question remained: how could this happen to Silken Laumann - the courageous and dedicated athlete who only three years ago returned from a devastating leg injury to capture bronze at the Barcelona Olympics? As the answer came to light, it revealed something less than a scandal of Ben Johnson proportions - and something more akin to a comedy of errors. As Laumann told it, her problems began in Victoria on March 8, when she consulted rowing-team physician Richard Backus about what medication she should - and could legally - take for a developing cold. Backus recommended Benadryl, an over-the-counter antihistamine that does not contain banned substances. But when Laumann went to a Victoria pharmacy to purchase the medication, she inadvertently bought a different kind of Benadryl - Benadryl Decongestant Allergy. As is clearly marked on the label, the medication contains pseudo-ephedrine. But Laumann did not read the label. Nor did she consult a pamphlet, provided to all athletes by the government-funded Canadian Centre for Drug-Free Sport, which lists more than 100 banned substances - including the Benadryl Decongestant Allergy formula. In Argentina, with her cold growing worse, Laumann consulted another team physician, Don Newhouse. He assured her that Benadryl was not in violation of anti-doping rules - although he did not check which kind she was using. She took the medication. And the next day, post-race tests revealed a concentration of 29 micrograms of pseudo-ephedrine per millilitre in her urine. The allowed limit is 10 micrograms. According to Jack Uetrecht, a professor of pharmacy and medicine at the University of Toronto, pseudo-ephedrine stimulates the body's respiratory and vascular system in much the same way as adrenaline does. (Its decongestant benefit is that it shrinks nasal blood vessels.) But in the form and dosage that Laumann took it, pseudo-ephedrine "does not enhance performance," Uetrecht said. (Uetrecht added that Backus's original prescription - regular Benadryl - is an antihistamine that is effective only for treating allergies. "It wouldn't have helped her cold at all," he says. "To use it for colds is totally irrational.")...As for Laumann's immediate future, the COA's Letheren said that "Silken went to such lengths to protect herself and comply with the rules that we believe there should be no sanctions." Laumann, meanwhile, retired to her Victoria home to rest. "After this is over," she said, "I'm just going to have to put this behind me, be more careful and watch the advice that I take more carefully." From now on, she added, her attitude towards any medication will be: "Don't ever take anything ever, no matter how sick you are." After a week of turmoil, that is understandable. But there is another piece of advice, time-honored and tested, that may apply in this case: whenever taking an over-the-counter medication, read the label. None of the rowers received their medals.
I hope this is the media making a mountain out of a molehill. Let's not forget the North Korean team is still allowed to compete despite their performance enhancement scandal from last year's World Cup. Does being struck by lightning count too? I'm sure that the North Korean ladies gained super human abilities like they were Marvel characters.
The difference between her and Hope is that Hope's test is BEFORE the Olympic matches, not after, so maybe that's why she only got a slap on the wrist. If she were tested positive AFTER, then it's a different story. Of course, I don't know if there were others that tested positive before the Olympics and got banned because I don't know much about other Olympians, so maybe there is favoritism toward our Hope Solo.
Not entirely-- the difference I believe, is also that pseudephedrine is regarded as a performance enhancer, albeit mild. Diuretics are banned because they may be used to flush out the traces of PEDs, not because they are PEDs. (Not sure this is true when speaking of wrestlers and boxers, who have to make marginal weights. There there is "performance" of a sort that is affected.) Further, IIUC, this particular substance is one which people commonly fail on for non-doping reasons-- so commonly that the sanctions on it are variable by situation. If she hadn't been able to produce the perscription, or if the detected amount exceeded that explained by the perscription, the sanction likely would have been serious. In the actual case-- IIUC-- its an "oops" of a sort they see a lot. "Favoritism" is not a word often found in association with USADA. "Persecution" is more their style...
Silken Laumann's Benadryl is pretty well known. Jessica Hardy less so but another unknowingly ingested case: Family and friends of world record-setting swimmer Jessica Hardy gathered at her mother and stepfather's Long Beach home for a Fourth of July celebration of her making the U.S. Olympic team and the fulfillment of a dream delayed. As guests dined on appetizers, pizza and salad, no one had to be reminded that a July 4 drug test four years ago led to a doping suspension that prevented Hardy from competing in the 2008 Olympic Games and triggered a chain of events that threatened her career and reputation. ... Hardy, 25, overcame four years of obstacles in courthouses, conference rooms, corporate headquarters, drug labs and swimming pools, emerging with her dream and reputation intact. Two panels ruled her positive drug test was the result of her unknowingly ingesting a tainted supplement. ... Hardy was suspended just days before the 2008 Olympics after testing positive for the banned drug clenbuterol. She would spend much of the next four years challenging the International Olympic Committee, the World Anti-Doping Agency, and a Texas nutritional supplement company. ... On July 19, 2008, Hardy, swimming without the benefit of a high tech suit, smashed the 50-meter breaststroke world record during a time trial at the U.S. Olympic training camp at Stanford. She swam unaware of events in a drug testing lab 350 miles away. A day earlier at the UCLA drug testing lab the "A" bottle of urine sample #1517756 had tested positive for clenbuterol, which is prohibited by the IOC and swimming's global governing body. The sample was from Hardy's July 4 drug test following her fourth-place finish in the 2008 Trials 100 freestyle final. An analysis of the "B" bottle of Hardy's urine sample confirmed the positive finding. Hardy left the training camp, withdrew from the Olympic team and eventually accepted a two-year ban from competition. ... Hardy told an American Arbitration Association panel during an appeal of her ban that she consumed four to six packets of the drink supplement in the 72 hours before her July 4 drug test. "I thought it was an equivalent to a Gatorade," Hardy said. "I put it in my water bottle and went around drinking it. It tasted like Gatorade." ... In May 2009, the arbitration panel, while finding that Hardy was negligent in taking the supplement, ruled that she had no "intention to cheat or was seeking to enhance her performance inappropriately or in violation of the rules" and reduced her suspension to one year. She was cleared to return to competition Aug. 1, 2009. ... The Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected appeals of the AAA ruling by the World Anti-Doping Agency and swimming's worldwide governing body, citing "truly exceptional" circumstances surrounding Hardy's case. But her participation in the 2012 Games still remained uncertain because of the IOC's Rule 45, in which athletes with drug suspensions longer than six months are not eligible to compete in the Olympics. In April 2011, the IOC said Hardy was not subject to Rule 45.
Agreed. I never said it was over-covered; you said I did. I said it was the media making a mountain out of a molehill, which can happen with one news story or 100. Hope took medication for something and was unaware it had a banned substance in it. So far, she is still playing. It is my hope that this story--including the way it was reported as the top sports story on many sites--is not as sensational as some headlines might lead people to believe.
it did not have a banned substance in it. it metabolized into a banned substance while it was in her body. and the usada does not mess around. those days are long gone. there are actually rules for these accidental episodes and you could be on the right side or the wrong side. on the wrong side they come down hard - no mercy hope was not on the wrong side of this particular rule.