Isabell Werth accepted her suspension from the International Equestrian Federation, declining to have her horse’s “B” sample tested. (Getty Images) Olympic Champion’s Horse Fails Drug Test
German rider Isabell Werth, a six time Olympic champion, became the latest equestrian competitor from Beijing caught in a doping scandal. Werth’s horse, Whisper, tested positive for the sedative fluphenazine at an event on May 30, according the International Equestrian Federation (FEI).
The FEI provisionally suspended Werth and she declined to have the horse’s “B” sample tested.
"Consequently, Mrs. Werth's provisional suspension remains in effect," the FEI said. "The parties agreed to hold a final hearing on this matter within the next several weeks."
According to Werth, “Whisper suffers from the so-called "Shivering Syndrome." She claims she injected a banned drug into Whisper once, only to see how he would react to the drug.
“I deeply regret this incident, but I was convinced that I had acted correctly” she said in a statement.
Werth won team gold medals at the 1992-2000, and 2008 Olympics, as well as an individual gold in 1996, and three silver medals in dressage.
After a series of doping scandals, the German Olympic committee disbanded its equestrian program last month.
IBU Doubles Anti-Doping Funding
After a season marred by a doping scandal at its world championships, the International Biathlon Union announced on Tuesday it was doubling its budget to fight doping in the sport.
The federation will spend $388,000 on anti-doping measures during the 2009-10 season it announced on Tuesday.
"We are not proud to have had those threepositive cases in the last season," IBU President Anders Besseberg said. "However, we are proud that through the excellent work of our own anti-doping experts we were the first in the world to be able to catch athletes using bio-similar EPO ... after we found some negative but suspicious test results in the previous season."
The new budget will "secure a solid financial basis to implement a highly professional testing program for both out-of-competition tests and targeted tests in addition to the in-competition testing, in order to do the utmost to fight doping in biathlon," Besseberg said.
At the world championships in PyeongChang, three Russian biathletes, including defending champion Yekaterina Iourieva failed drug tests.
Valverde out of Tour
The top-ranked cyclist in the world will miss this year’s Tour de France due to a doping offense.
Spaniard Alejandro Valverde has an outstanding doping infraction in Italy and was appealing the ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. CAS however, won’t be able to hear the case in time to make a ruling before the July 4 start of the Tour.
"In these circumstances, knowing that the race heads in to Italian territory, we find ourselves obliged to announce that Alejandro Valverde won't take the start of the 2009 Tour," his Caisse d'Epargne said in a statement on Tuesday.
The team added the situation was “unfair.”
Valverde’s ban came from the Italian Olympic Committee last month from a doping sample collected during the 2008 Tour’s leg in Italy.
Written by Ed Hula III.
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