Poor sport Russians whining at the Olympics...boo hoo

[LadyDarkFire]

I hate to play Devil's Advocate here...but if it wasn't on the banned list yet, is it really fair to strip the medals? I'm not saying they shouldn't have been taken, but if it isn't a banned substance yet, then they weren't using banned substances...
-CoolCucumber

If I remember right, there is a stipulation in the banned list that says that if a drug is recent to the market, and similar in chemical make up, and results as a banned substance, the IOC reserves the right to strip metals. They all sign this contract, they know the risks. These atheletes took a really stupid chance that they would just be tested for drug residue. Hemoglobin testing is expensive, but as this has proven, it works. When they took that chance, they gave up every right they had to protest the decision. The samples were later tested again, specific to the drug, and were found positive. All athletes had the second test preformed. Even if they hadn't tested as high as they did on the hemoglobin count, they would have gotten caught. Remember, this is the Olympic contract that also banned an athlete in the winter games for having taken cold medicine. The cold meds contained a fairly common substance, sudoephedrine. The reason? Well, the name says it all, ephedrine is one of the components of Adrenalin, and is often used to treat allergic reactions because it clears airways and increases blood flow.

 

[tigerjen]

Actually....

it was a Romanian gymnast who was stripped of her
gold due to taking cold medicine in the last summer
Games in Sydney.....there was a lot of talk over that.