Opinion | Inside Incheon: When the 'innocent' drug cheat didn't really cheat at all
A gold medallist tested positive for a banned substance after drinking a common sports drink
How would you feel if you were a young athlete and were sent back home in disgrace and labelled a drug cheat for having unknowingly ingested a banned substance from a drink picked up at a convenience store?
Our good sources at the Games say a gold medallist tested positive for a prohibited drug. Until confirmed, we cannot name the athlete as he or she has asked for the "B" sample to be tested. So let's call him/her Athlete X for the time being.
We know the country - it's not Hong Kong - and sport but cannot name both as it is an athlete from a small sporting nation and that would narrow the field too much.
This stimulant is commonly found in energy drinks and ... had picked up a drink at a shop
What we can tell you is that Athlete X is going through a traumatic time wondering if the gold medal is going to be stripped for an "innocent" act which even authorities admit was not premeditated.
I use the word "innocent" as it was supplied by none other than Tan Sri Jegathesan, the chairman of the Olympic Council of Asia's medical commission and anti-doping committee.
Dr Jegathesan revealed athletes who test positive fall into three categories:
- the innocent, who unknowingly take a prohibited substance like picking up an energy drink off the shelf
- the victim, whose entourage has grand designs of glory
- the hardcore drug cheat who has studied the subject of doping and is more knowledgeable than most.
Cambodia's soft tennis teenager Yi Sopphany - one of two athletes who have been confirmed as having tested positive in Incheon - falls under the innocent category.