Hardy has "...no idea how this positive test happened"

Jessica Hardy took her no-doping case to the public, as documented by the LA Times.  Hardy is the US swimmer who was headed for the Olympics until she delivered a positive urine test for the ''other anabolic' -- clenbuterol.  Apparently the positive test is both shocking and devastating for the swimmer, who holds at least one US swimming record, which was once a world record.

U.S. swimmer Jessica Hardy took to the airwaves this morning to proclaim her innocence after a positive doping test that is threatening to derail her Beijing Olympics bid. Speaking on CBS' "The Early Show," the 21-year-old swimmer from Long Beach described the past few days as "heartbreaking and devastating....It's literally a nightmare."

Hardy, who tested positive for a prohibited drug, told the show's hosts that "in my heart I know I'm 100% clean and I've never done anything different my whole career. I've been clean my whole career and to have this huge setback...it's just heartbreaking."

Hardy’s attorney, Howard Jacobs, said Thursday that the swimmer tested positive for the stimulant clenbuterol after her second doping test at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials. Her first and third doping tests that same week, Jacobs said, both came back negative.

Clenbuterol is a beta-adrenergic agonist (dilates bronchioles) which is also felt to be somewhat anabolic, and somewhat lipolytic (cuts fat).  The LA times is a little off calling it a 'stimulant'.  WADA calls it 'other anabolic'.

“I have my attorneys and my experts looking into it, but honestly we have no idea how this positive test happened,” Hardy said.

Hardy qualified to compete in the Olympic 100-meter breaststroke and the 50 freestyle. She told CBS that she heard the bad news when she awoke on Monday at the U.S. training camp in Palo Alto: "I was actually napping when I got the phone call. USADA, the U.S Anti-Doping Agency, called and said that I tested positive and I had never even heard of this drug before.

“I was taking notes right when she called, to write down my information and everything and I spelled the drug name wrong even....I was devastated."

Hardy holds out hope that she'll be able to clear herself and compete in the Beijing Games. "We’re going to have a hearing before the start of the Olympic Games, and as soon as possible to try to make sure that I can compete, because I know that I’m innocent and we just have to prove this.”

Does Hardy have enemies?  Sabotage?