Although trailing the original Beijing Olympics total by a small margin, The Beijing Paralympics sent home athlete #2 (the first Paralympian sent home was a Pakistani weigh lifter). A German wheelchair basketball player receives the boot according to The Standard (or AFP):
The Paralympics suffered its second doping scandal in as many days, with a German wheelchair basketball player sent home for taking a drug he said was meant to fight hair loss.
A statement from the German National Paralympic Committee said Ahmet Coskun had tested positive for finasteride after a pre-competition urine test on August 23.
On Tuesday, Pakistani powerlifter Naveed Ahmed Butt was revealed to have tested positive for the steroid methandienone metabolites on September 4, two days before the opening ceremony.
Coskun was averaging 10 points per game. He commented:
Coskun reacted to the message shocked: " I did not think of my hair and had notion that the hair stature means contains a forbidden substance. I am dismayed, Doping me never into the sense came completely. “
The drug is legitimately used for male pattern baldness. It could be that the athlete was treating baldness. We would agree that it doesn't make much sense for a wheelchair basketball player to mask anabolic steroids. The Telegraph carries an update:
"I was thinking about my hair and had no idea that the drug contained a banned substance. I'm very upset. I never intended to do doping," Coskun said
German chef de mission Karl Quade expressed regret at the news. "We take the issue of anti-doping very seriously. We've been carrying out an intensive anti-doping campaign for years in cooperation with NADAg (the German anti-doping agency)," he said in a statement.
Coskun, 33, who played for Germany in three of their pool matches but not in Wednesday's 73-63 win over Iran, will return home soon, German paralympic chiefs said.
well, I personally believe that the guy is most likely innocent!
Posted by: sports wheelchairs | 02/17/2009 at 10:20