Russian swim star and world-record holder Yulia Efimova got a 16-month ban for taking a supplement that included a banned substance.
She tested positive for DHEA. That’s for sure a no-no.
Odds are, most of you have never heard of her.
Fair enough.
Yulia Efimova after winning the 50 breaststroke at last year’s world championships in Barcelona // photo Getty Images
Moreover, doping cases tend to be repetitive, indeed mundane.
This one is actually interesting, and on a number of different levels.
Here’s why:
Efimova will sit out 2014 and the first two months of 2015, meaning she will likely be back in time for the 2015 world championships in Kazan, Russia, before a home crowd, and to make a run for Rio 2016. Thus she had ample incentive to get this over with.
It’s another example of leniency for supplement use. Which on the one hand is entirely appropriate. Supplement use is not, for instance, the same as injecting EPO. On the other, it makes you wonder — when is the message going to get through to elite athletes that supplement use can be reckless and irresponsible?
It’s also another victory for noted lawyer Howard Jacobs of Westlake Village, California. Look, if you have a doping problem, it’s like Ghostbusters — who you gonna call? Howard Jacobs, obviously.
Efimova didn’t even bother to have the B sample tested. She didn’t contest the lab finding. She knew what she had done. Again, this was an issue of negligence and then, for the authorities, seeking to measure liability with common sense.
The three-person FINA Doping Panel ruling was dated Monday.
Efimona competes for Russia but trains at the University of Southern California.
She is now 22. She has been a first-rate swimmer since her teens. She moved to USC when she was 18. At the 2012 London Games, she won bronze in the 200-meter breaststroke. Last year, at the world championships in Barcelona, she would win the finals of both the 50 and 200 breast and set the world-record in the 50, 29.78, in the heats – a mark that Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania then lowered in the semifinals to 29.48.
She tested positive after last year’s worlds — on Oct. 31, in an out-of-competition test.
She loses four gold medals at the European short-course championships in Denmark. She also loses two short-course world records set late last year, including one pending mark. Two of those four were individual races; two, relays.
The source of the positive was a supplement, Cellucor CLK, that she bought Sept. 16 at a GNC near where she lives in California. She said she relied on the advice she got at the GNC store, alleging that she believed “salespersons at vitamin stores in the United States were well-educated and knowledgable concerning the products they sold.”
She said she was “more inclined to question the qualifications of individuals selling supplements in Russia than in the United States.”
The level of her naiveté, frankly, borders on the breathtaking.
We are now 15 or so years after the creation of the World and U.S. Anti-Doping Agencies, and both have spent much time and energy reaching out to athletes in a bid to make clear they have to know what goes into their bodies.
And here is a world-class swim racer, indeed an Olympic medalist and world champion, relying on the advice of a clerk at a GNC?
From the decision: “Ms. Efimova testified that although she is an elite swimmer who had been through numerous doping controls and although she is aware that she is responsible for what she puts in her body, Ms. Efimova has never been given specific anti-doping education and has never been taught how to be a wise consumer of supplements, a problem her lawyer contended was compounded by the fact that her English is self-taught and by her relative unfamiliarity with the supplement market in the United States.”
How can it be she had never been given specific anti-doping education? Seriously?
Just so everyone understands the responsibilities here — though she has been training for the past four years primarily at USC, the party bearing the burden for educating her is the Russian Swimming Federation.
The panel, apparently being diplomatic, said “the fact that no anti-doping education was provided to Ms. Efimova by the RSF is disappointing and put her at a disadvantage in fulfilling her responsibility to be a savvy consumer.”
Is she alone in that regard? If not, how does that get fixed? If she is not alone, that is a significant problem, particularly since, again, next year’s worlds will be in Kazan.
A quick look at the label, as the decision noted, would have clearly shown DHEA listed as an ingredient.
As for her English-language abilities:
Efimova has been in the United States for roughly four years. Nobody is asking her to write like Faulkner. But four years? For sure she should be conversant.
Again, the level of the naiveté at issue surely must give the reasonable person pause.
At any rate, all of this is in its way prelude to what may well be the most intriguing part of the matter.
Some context:
Before moving to LA, Efimova had been coached by her father, Andrey. For the five years before that, she had been coached by Irina Vyatchanina. Efimova moved to SoCal to swim with the Trojan Swim Club, headed by coach Dave Salo.
Salo is, simply put, one of the great coaches in the world.
Here is the thing, though:
Two others, Jessica Hardy and Ous Mellouli, had positives while at USC, Hardy for a supplement, Mellouli for Adderall.
Side note: Howard Jacobs represented them both.
Now Hardy and Mellouli are both Olympic medalists and, yes, absolutely, positive role models. For sure. If you were a seventh-grade teacher, you totally would want Jessica Hardy or Ous Mellouli to come to your class and tell your kids their story of achievement.
Two other notes:
Salo had nothing to do with either positive test.
And he had nothing to do with Efimova’s positive.
In swim circles, however, there have been whispers — like, what is going on there under all that California sunshine?
That’s why perhaps this is maybe the most compelling excerpt in the entire decision, the panel devoting an entire paragraph to it, because what is more essential than someone’s reputation?
“According to Ms. Efimova, her coach at the Trojan Swim Club, David Salo, is adamantly opposed to the use of supplements of any kind. She said her coach frequently tells his swimmers that they can get all the nutrition they need through a well-balanced diet and that supplements are unnecessary.”
If you move halfway around the world … to place your trust in your coach … and your coach is one of the best … and he says don’t use supplements … and you do, anyway … it’s appropriate for the right people to stand up for the coach, in black and white, for everyone to see, when that coach is showing appropriate leadership.
So let’s everyone recognize, as the FINA Doping Panel did, too, that Dave Salo did the right thing here.
And Yulia Efimova made a mistake.
And — despite the fact that USADA, WADA and other responsible agencies — are screaming from the rooftops not to take supplements, that message is somehow not getting across fully and completely.
So, where are we, and — to quote that most famous of Russian aphorisms — what is to be done?
Yuliya Efimova Thrown 16-Month Ban And Lifeline To Home Defence Of World Crowns
May 13, 2014 - Craig Lord
Yuliya Efimova, of Russia, has been thrown a lifeline to a home World Championships and the defence of two world titles in Kazan next year by a 16-month suspension in the wake of a positive doping test for a steroid.
The ruling, which coincides with the start of the Russian Championships in Moscow, includes acceptance that the banned substance was indeed in the 22-year-old’s body and that she took it. The conclusion notes, however, that she did not intend to cheat.
Efimova took the word of a sales assistance and then failed to read a product label that noted the presence of DHEA alongside the substance she had been seeking. The panel concluded that she had been “negligent”.
The decision comes with the cancellation of all results since the late October finding, including four gold medals at the European s/c Championships in Herning, Denmark – and four world records.
Golds now go to Ruta Meilutyte (LTU) for the 50m breaststroke (making it a double celebration, the England-based swimmer having won the 100m), and Rikke Pedersen, who celebrates what is now a home-championship win in the 200m at Herning last December.
Germany gets gold in the 4x50m mixed medley relay, too, the champions Christian Diener, Caroline Ruhnau, Steffen Deibler and Dorothea Brandt. And Pedersen gets a second gold as a member of the 4x50m women’s medley relay as Denmark step up for the win and Russia loses the ‘World’ and European record of 1:44.67. In the latter, gold its shared by Mie Nielsen, Jeanette Ottesen and Pernille Blume and Denmark rise up the medals table, too. The silver goes to the Swedish quartet and Britain takes bronze.
The Russian loses four global standards, including one pending mark:
- in the 200m breaststroke, a 2:14.39, the standard reverting to another Salo charge, American Rebecca Soni, now retired, who clocked 2:14.57 in shiny suit at the Duel in the Pool in Manchester back in 2009;
- in the 4x50m mixed medley relay in Herning (see results shuffle below);
- in the women’s 4x50m medley in Herning (see results shuffle below);
- and a 28.71 50m breaststroke of FINA World Cup tour on November 10 will not now be ratified
The ruling in full (pdf in full below) notes that similar cases have resulted in suspensions of between 12 and 21 months, the thoughts of panel members Robert Fox (SUI), William Bock (USA) and Raymond Hack (RSA) concluding with:
“Upon balancing all the relevant factors and after considering many other cases across a wide spectrum of sports, the FINA DP (Doping Panel) has concluded that a sixteen (16) month period of eligibility is both just and fair under the circumstances of this case.”
Efimova, it was accepted, had failed to read the label of a Cellucor CLK product that contained the banned substance. That, the FINA DP concluded, was “negligent, but subjective considerations unique to her situation do justify evaluating her fault at a lower level than if these considerations were not present”.
Efimova will miss the European Championships this year in Berlin. The FINA DP noted: “The FINA DP recognises that this is a strong sanction that will cause Ms. Efimova to be denied a world record as well as to sit out more than an entire season while at the height of her competitive career. However, Ms. Efimova is a role model and an elite swimmer at the very top of her profession and so must be held to a high standard.”
Efimova told the panel that she was more inclined to question the qualifications of individuals selling supplements in Russia than in the United States. Many may well see that as an error of judgement, the warning about supplementation far and wide.
She had been looking for “L-carnitine”, which she had used “for many years without incident”. She was told that the Cellucor CK product contained that and did not question the salesperson further. The product was not sold as a “performance enhancer”.
However, DHEA was “clearly listed ask an ingredient on the label of the product”, the FINA DP noted.
Efimova told the panel that she had taken the Cellucor product for just a week, one that happened to coincide with the out-of-competition test, because she had had a stomach upset after taking the product, which came in pill form.
She reverted to taking a liquid form of L-carnitine after the stomach upset. Efimova noted during her hearing that coach Salo was “adamantly opposed to the use of supplements of any kind”. The panel notes that Trojan is also the home of Jessica Hardy, who served a ban for a substance she took inadvertently in a supplement: “She [Efimova] said her coach frequently tells his swimmers that can get all the nutrition they need through a well balanced diet and that supplements are unnecessary.”
The Judgment:
FINA Doping Panel Decision – Yuliya Efimova (RUS)
On October 31, 2013 a swimmer Yuliya Efimova (RUS) was tested positive to the substance 7-keto-DHEA (Class S.1.1.b Endogenous Anabolic Androgenic Steroids) with the occasion of the FINA out-of-competition doping control test in Los Angeles (USA).
The FINA Doping Panel decided according to the FINA DC Rule 10.5.2 to impose on the athlete a period of sixteen (16) months ineligibility, starting on October 31, 2013 and ending at the conclusion of 28 February 2015, for her first anti-doping rule violation.
The ruling includes the cancellation of results after the positive finding. Thus, the relevant podiums at the European s/c Championships in Herning last December are adjusted, leaving Ruta Meilutyte (LTU) with gold in the 50 and 100m and Rikke Pedersen (DEN) with gold in the 200m breaststroke. It was the same two swimmers in the same two events that Efimova defeated for world-championship gold in Barcelona last summer. Sweden’s Jennie Johansson leaps on the podium for two bronzes, while Italy’s Giulia De Ascentis takes bronze in the 200m.
The Herning 2013 podiums
50m
- Ruta Meilutyte (LTU)
- Moniek Nijhuis (NED)
- Jennie Johansson (SWE)
100m
- Meilutyte
- Rikke Pedersen (DEN)
- Johansson
200m
- Pedersen
- Vitalina Simonova
- Giulia De Ascentis
4x50m mixed medley relay
Russia 1:37.63 WR, ER now cancelled
The new podium:
- Germany 1:39.32 - Christian Diener; Caroline Ruhnau; Steffen Deibler and Dorothea Brandt
- Czech Republic 1:39.54 - Simona Baumrtova; Petr Bartunek; Lucie Svecena; Tomas Plevko
- Italy 1:39.68 - Niccolo’ Bonacchi; Francesco Di Lecce; Ilaria Bianchi; Erika Ferraioli
Russia 1:44.67 ‘WR’ and ER cancelled
The new podium:
- Denmark 1:44.81 ER – Mie Nielsen, Jeanette Ottesen and Pernille Blume
- Sweden 1:46.08 – Michelle Coleman, Jennie Johansson, Sarah Sjoestrom, Louise Hansson
- Great Britain 1:46.56 – Fran Halsall, Sophie Allen, Jemma Lowe, Siobhan-Marie O’Connor
Swimming: Efimova gets a 16-month doping ban
Russian swimmer Yulia Efimova was banned for 16 months on Tuesday for failing a drugs test, Russian media reported.
The international swimming federation (FINA) doping panel had provisonally suspended Efimova in January after samples she provided in an out-of-competition control last October showed the presence of a prohibited anabolic steroid.
The FINA ban runs until February 28, 2015, and all of Efimova's results from October 31, 2013 onwards, including the 200m breaststroke world record she set at the European short course championships at Herning, Denmark, in December, have been cancelled.
Efimova was reported to have accepted she was in breach of the doping code violation but presented a detailed defence and insisted she had not intended to enhance her performance.
Anatoly Zhuravlev, head coach of Russia's national swimming team, said he was satisfied with the verdict and had expected a harsher penalty.
"It's the good news as we expected a two-year ban for Yulia (Efimova)," he said.
"The verdict allows her to compete at the world championships at Kazan in 2015. She will continue practising in the United States as before and we (Russian swimming federation) will provide her with all possibble support."
Efimova, 22, won the 200m breaststroke bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics and also won 50m and 200m breaststroke world titles in 2013.
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