Mathias Flückiger has Provisional Ban Lifted After Zeranol Test Result
The Disciplinary Chamber of Swiss Olympic has announced that it has decided that Mathias Flückiger's Zeranol test result from August will not be considered a positive doping sample.
Following this decision, the Swiss Sports Integrity (SSI) has lifted Mathias Flückiger's ban after 120 days allowing him to return to competition. Mathias said: "I have never doped. The decision of the disciplinary chamber is an extremely big relief for me. It was the worst five months of my life. After months of enormously stressful waiting, I am now optimistic about the future again. Athletically, I'm more motivated than ever and I'm working on my comeback every day."
Mathias Flückiger had previously pled his innocence in September and had submitted a detailed dossier to the Disciplinary Chamber of Swiss Olympic (DK) requesting the immediate lifting of the provisional ban.
A press release on the lifting of Mathias Flückiger's ban states this included details showing:
 | - DK was realistically shown with the associated evidence how food contamination could have occurred. - Flückiger's steroid profile is normal, absolutely inconspicuous. - Flückiger independently had a hair sample taken on August 31, 2022, which was analyzed by Prof. Pascal Kintz of the University of Strasbourg on September 12, 2022. Kintz is the world's leading expert in this field and has made a name for himself in particular in hair analyses in criminal proceedings. The hair analysis was negative. No traces of zeranol or its metabolites were found in Flückiger's hair. This means that Mathias Flückiger had neither ingested small amounts of Zeranol over a longer period of time, nor a larger amount on a specific day. - Shortly before the atypical test result at the Swiss Championships in Leysin, two negative samples were taken from Flückiger. * Monday, May 30, 2022, training control by SSI, 6 days before XCO-SM Leysin (Sui) * Friday, June 10, 2022, competition control by UCI/ITA, 5 days after SM, after XCC World Cup victory in Leogang (Ö). - There are several scientific evidences and findings that a doping scenario can be excluded in the case of Mathias Flückiger: The available scientific evidence on Zeranol shows that it is highly unlikely to have an anabolic effect in humans. Zeranol is therefore not used as an anabolic steroid either in body-building circles or by athletes (WADA statistics). Zeranol is also not used in microdoses because of its non-effectiveness (unlike testosterone and testosterone-like anabolic androgenic steroids). The chemical structures of testosterone and zeranol are fundamentally different, as is their mechanism of action. |
While Mathias Flückiger's ban has been lifted the case will go back to Swiss Sports Integrity where the National Anti-Doping Agency can re-evaluate the A sample taken on June 5, 2022, as either an abnormal or atypical analysis result.
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Finally, crouching back from a suspension that never should have happend in the first place!
This bann just ignored multiple concepts and rulebooks what makes it suspicous.
Pulling out an athlete on the top of his game and then just go "na, sorry, wrong" screams for consequences and i hope this story will find it's end with a legal settlement.
For Mathias i really hope this wasn't to mentally draining and he'll be back roaring!
Hope he has an absolute heater of a season this year and can put this behind him.
From wikiwiki
is used mainly as an anabolic agent in veterinary medicine ( non- steroidal )
Zeranol is approved for use as a growth promoter in livestock, including beef cattle, in North America and is marketed in Spain although not approved for use in the EU
Zeranol may be found as a contaminant in fungus-infected crops
www.usada.org/spirit-of-sport/education/zeranol-faq
Usada updated there info in 2021 but no progress has been made up until wada published its 2023 list in September.
I think the testing equipment is so advanced now. Tiny trace amounts can be detected. This means no tested athlete can safely eat red meat in North America or Europe.
Grigory Rodchenkov biography
( the doping doctor from academy award winning documentary is a great read. )
Reading Alberto contadors CAS report. His dodgy beef defence wasn’t that dodgy. The plastersizer? in his blood and confidential informer didn’t help.
@jayacheess:
Innocent until proven guilty or my doctors are better then your lab tests? So hard to have faith in fair play in cycling.
We don't have a test for it now, either.
No hate just disillusioned.