No way Lauren took it knowingly. It's retroactive for just 6 months and she just announced she's pregnant so it won't affect her future racing. If the supplement was contaminated and she had no clue, should she still even have the 6 month retroactive suspension? Are athletes expected to test every single supplement they take? The manufacturer of the supplement screwed up, not the athlete.
This is the challenge with this. I WANT to believe these athletes. They seem to have plausible reasons for the positive tests. But these are the SAME stories, explanation and defenses that truly dirty, athletes caught doping who have knowingly used PED's, concoct. So you really don't know who's telling the truth here other than going with your gut!
On the supplements business in general - for the most part it's completely un-regulated with no standards. Yes - many companies go on and on about how clean they are (I'd REALLY like to believe them) . . but - just read over my first paragraph. That's the reason that, when you are at the elite/pro national team level in most sports, and you are in your Federation's testing pool, they give you this massive book the size of the Bible, with all the things you SHOULD NOT take. In short, they tell you, don't take anything!*
I'm still not 100% clear with these athletes who are focusing exclusively on WTC/IRONMAN races if the protocols, process and procedures are the same as those athletes who are part of national federation testing pools. Can someone enlighten me, please?
*This is why, if you tested the whole field at Ironman Hawaii unannounced, you would get a surprising number of positive tests among age-groupers - almost all of them like the Barnett/Gerdes situation - unintentional/inadvertent. Many age-group triathletes pop all manner of vitamin pills, and supplements of all kinds like candy! This is also why really wide-spread testing of age-group athletes has it's challenges.
Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog