Someone spiked my toothpaste: Top 10 failed drug test excuses
On the heels of cyclist Frank Schleck's positive test for a diuretic at the Tour de France and his subsequent explanation that he was poisoned by an unknown person, we'd like to present other memorable athlete excuses (whether they were the genuine article or a complete fabrication is up for debate) as to why they received a positive drug test:
The French tennis player tested positive for cocaine in 1999, but he denied ingesting the substance...unless it was from that woman he kissed the night before the test. Oh yes, that was what happened. Gasquet was cleared by the Court of Arbitration for Sport and his ban was dismissed after it was judged that the amount was small enough to have entered his system in such a manner.
Nandralone-injected veal was said to be the culprit behind the Czech tennis player's positive test in 1998. Not so fast, said a team of scientists. Unless Korda had been eating 40 calves a day, the amount of the drug in his system could not have come from ingesting the meat.
When the American cyclist was found to have someone else's blood inside of him in 2005, the explanation was simple: it must have been his "vanishing twin." Hamilton said he had absorbed a twin in utero and that would account for the foreign blood in his system...34 years after he was born. Hamilton was suspended for two years and in 2010 he admitted to doping during his racing career.
A shady masseuse was Gatlin's explanation for how he ended up inadvertently doping. The American sprinter said he thought a cream that was applied to his legs was just that — turns out it was actually laced with steroids, and he knew nothing about what it contained.
The American dominated at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, but Jones was stripped of two gold medals and three bronze she won in Sydney after it was discovered she had been using steroids. After she was caught, Jones told Oprah Winfrey "I didn’t love myself enough" to tell the truth to investigators.
Even though he's keen to admit in recent TV advertisements that he "Cheetah's all the time," with a brand of ginseng drinks, the disgraced Canadian sprinter was adamant that an American rival spiked his ginseng drink before his win at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.
Between October 2009 and January 2010, American track star LaShawn Merritt failed three drug tests, which his lawyer attributed to the use of "an over-the-counter male enhancement product" by the Olympic champion.
The Canadian won gold in snowboarding in Nagano in 1998, but tested positive for marijuana afterwards and was stripped of his medal. Rebagliati had it returned after explaining that he was at a party where friends were partaking and it must have been the secondhand contact that led to the failed test.
The label could have said 'no more tears,' but for the British shot-putter, it probably should have also said 'no more competitions.' After downing a bottle of the soapy stuff, Edwards blamed the shampoo for a positive drug test in 1994 and resulting lifetime ban.
Somehow, the German bronze medalist 5000-metre runner knew when his positive test came up that it was because someone had spiked his toothpaste with nandralone. Baumann had won the 5000-metre event at the Barcelona Games in 1992 but the positive test in 2000 also came after two failed tests in 1999.
