Scientists at the antidoping lab in Cologne, Germany, where many of the tests from the Tokyo Games had been sent to be analyzed, had also been tipped off to the intel and started looking for the metabolite in an over-the-counter muscle relaxant sold in Asia. It came from a preservative in the sunscreen. After about a week of Fedoruk and 11 other volunteers lathering on sunscreen, the scientists discovered that traces of 4-CPA were showing up in their urine. One of them was the sunscreen.Ī trip to the drugstore ensued. That substance is a metabolite of meclofenoxate, which is a prohibited stimulant that hadn't been much on the antidoping radar for years.įedoruk started asking questions and, in a fortuitous turn, Font had kept an extensive log of everything he had eaten, or applied to his body, for months.
The sunscreen sleuthing began when Fedoruk, the USADA scientist, found it strange that two athletes from diametrically opposed worlds - a figure skater, Jessica Calalang, and a mixed-martial arts fighter, Rob Font - had each tested positive for 4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid (4-CPA). "But importantly, the science and the rules also need to advance so that we can be certain we're not only capturing intentional cheats, but also that we're not punishing innocent athletes."
"Most labs are experiencing really good advancements in technology," USADA CEO Travis T.
In some cases, athletes ingest them intentionally.īut in a growing number of instances, the banned drugs enter their systems in unintentional ways: through the skin via sunscreen or eyeliner, or through contaminated prescription drugs or, in the particularly frustrating case of American distance runner Shelby Houlihan, through what she claims was a pork burrito tainted with traces of a banned performance-enhancing drug. Increasingly sensitive instruments designed to detect banned substances have the ability to pick up increasingly minuscule amounts of those substances in an athlete's system. It's an issue that runs more than skin deep throughout sports. And within 48 hours, we had the answer to our question." "I'm carrying around urine bottles and sending them to the lab. Anti-Doping Agency, who identified the issue and also volunteered to be a test subject for his own study.
Matt Fedoruk, the chief scientist at the U.S. People are laughing at me in the office," said Dr. "I'm lathering sunscreen all over my body. The scientists discovered the stimulant could be found in an ingredient present in an over-the-counter sunscreen. But they were avoided thanks to some nimble sleuthing by antidoping scientists in the U.S. Shortly after last year's Olympics, the urine samples of more than six dozen athletes who competed in Tokyo came back with traces of a banned stimulant. Though there's nothing novel in suggesting all 1,900 athletes who will train and compete in the sunny stadium at track world championships in Eugene, Oregon, over the next 10 days should slather up with sunscreen, in the complicated world of antidoping, nothing is quite that simple.