The 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto have been tarnished by a high number of failed doping tests. A total of 12 athletes have been disqualified from the Games for doping violations and there is still another week of competition remaining. The 12 suspensions includes 7 athletes who tested positive for anabolic steroids.
Five different steroids were involved. The steroid-using athletes represented seven different countries and competed in four different sporting disciplines.
- Astrid Camposeco, a weightlifter from Guatamala, and Nelson Gomez, a baseball player from Puerto Rico, both tested positive for boldenone (aka Equipoise).
- Cinthya Domínguez, a weightlifter from Mexico, tested positive for oxandrolone (aka Anavar).
- Mauricio Fiol, a swimmer from Peru, and Javier Jesus Ortizo Angulo, a baseball player from Columbia, both tested positive for stanozolol (aka Winstrol).
- Elverine Jimenez a wrestler from Nicaragua, tested positive for DHEA.
- Patrick Mendes, a weightlifter from Brazil, tested positive for 4-chlorodehydromethyltestosterone (aka Oral Turinabol)
The Pan-Am Games feature athletes from various North American, Central American and South American countries competing in summer Olympic sports. The competition is organized by the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO). PASO is affiliated with the International Olympic Committee (IOC). PASO’s actions and rules are determined by the Olympic charter, and of course the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) anti-doping code.
The Pan-American Games (aka Pan Am Games) come around every four years in the year before the Summer Olympic Games. But it attracts relatively little interest in comparison to the attention garnered by the Olympics. But that doesn’t mean that anti-doping efforts are not just as rigorous as the Olympic Games.
The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) is in charge of anti-doping efforts at the 2015 Pan-Am Games. Under the direction of the CCES, sixty highly-trained anti-doping officers and 30 blood collection officers collect and submit samples to the WADA-accredited INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier laboratory for testing.
PASO is taking the strategy of trying to minimize the seemingly high number of steroid-related suspensions. Ivar Sisniega, the vice president of PASO, has suggested that the doping positive rate is similar to the rate at the Olympics.
“It is a normal range, but we want to be clear that PASO is still very concerned about these positive results, and that we are taking it very seriously,” Sisniega said at a press conference.
PASO, which represents 41 National Olympic Committees, said any sanctions for the four athletes will be determined by the international federations for their respective sports.
Eduardo De Rose, chairman of the PASO medical commission, in contrast to Sisniega, seemed alarmed by the high rate of steroid positives so early in the Games. However, he believed the positives could be explained by the new, more draconian 2015 WADA (Anti-Doping) Code.
“The medical commission is, in a certain way, surprised to have so many cases at the beginning of the Games, but the numbers will (ultimately) be more or less the same that we have at every Games,” said De Rose. “But we are working here under the new regulation of WADA so the controls are much harder than the controls that we had in Guadalajara [the site of the previous Pan Am Games].”
With a week left in the 2015 Pan Am Games, will more and more athletes continue to be busted under the new 2015 WADA Code?