Lund

Too Little, Too Late for Lund

Drug that got Lund banned from Turin will be legal

The drug that got American skeleton racer Zach Lund barred from the Turin Olympics hours before the opening ceremony is being removed from the World Anti-Doping Agency’s banned list. Lund tested positive for finasteride, an ingredient in a popular hair-restoration pill that also was believed to be capable of masking steroid usage. It was prohibited in 2005, but after further study showed athletes gain no tangible advantage from the drug, it will be removed from WADA’s banned list on Jan. 1.

Lund served a one-year suspension and could not race in Turin, where he would have been a gold-medal favorite.

“When it happened, I said they would make this legal in a year or two, because that’s what WADA does,” Lund said in Lake Placid, where he’s training for the upcoming World Cup season. “They put stuff on the banned list without any scientific proof saying why. They’re not held accountable. It’s not like I’m getting a ‘Sorry we took the Olympics away from you. Sorry we almost ruined your career.’”

Read the rest of the article here.

Yeah, this would stink for Lund. But I find it hard to believe that he didn’t know that the drug was considered to be a masking agent. He also should have known that the stuff he was using to battle his baldness contained the banned substance. If I was an Olympian, I would obsess about what I was putting in (and on) my body and I would make sure that nothing would keep me from participating. You would think that Lund would have had a trainer who would have made it part of his job to keep track of things like that.