Category: Health

Norwegian National team skier Kristin Stormer Steira has struggled with an Achilles injury since early this spring.

– It started to bother me this spring and it’s not letting go, says Stormer Steira.

July 5, 2004

Some people may refer to me as “Megan the Klutz” (I had a book with that title when I was a kid) and sometimes it couldn’t be more true! How many other cross country skiers (a non-contact sport I might add) have undergone 3 orthopedic surgeries in 4 summers (two ankles and now a knee)?? Well, I am the lucky one! My dad says I’m no longer allowed to do the following things:
Football, soccer, basketball, rugby, sahlu (Finnish road hockey), wrestling, orienteering, hiking without really good boots, running down stairs, walking on uneven ground barefoot, and cliff jumping………

My mom, however, just said I should stop acting like a boy! But really, if I wasn’t aggressive and didn’t enjoy running around playing stupid games, I may never have come as far as I have in sport (or I may have been further ahead since I wouldn’t be recovering from my 3rd surgery right now). I guess I’ll never know.

One week ago today I was up at 5am ready to go to the hospital for my 8am surgery. My mom came along as my moral support and once checking in the mandatory 2 hours ahead of time, we sat and waited. I knew what to expect since I had both my ankles fixed before, but this was a bit new, and as the surgeon said when he came to sign the correct knee (a precaution so that they do the right one!) I looked terrified! The surgery I was having was “patellar autograft anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction” ( this website tells a bit about it… http://www.arthroscopy.com/sp05018.htm ). So, I tried to relax a bit, met with the anesthesiologist and a nurse who led me into the OR. Being in an operating room is quite an experience. You go in, lie on a small table in the middle of a bright room with at least 6 doctors and nurses preparing to cut you open. Then you get a needle and the next thing you know its 3 hours later and in my case….you’re freezing! (some people are mad, others upset…it just depends).

June 30, 2004

Last time, I introduced you to the plotline: While training
for the upcoming ski season, I took a bad fall and shattered my
collarbone. So now, instead of documenting my training routine,
I am documenting my attempted recovery. For more details, as well
as photos and X-rays, click on the link in the right-hand column.
Now, back to our story…

I tried to mentally prepare myself for the next few weeks. This
would give me a chance to catch up on work. I could sleep all I
wanted and not worry about being lazy. I tried to rationalize, but
I couldn't really convince myself. I knew this was going to be a
tough few weeks, but I had no idea how tough it was going to be.
Here is a timeline:

October 17
At the surgery, the doctor gave me
two weeks worth of very powerful pain killers, but I stopped taking
them yesterday. I hated the feeling of being drugged up. I would
rather have pain than feel half-conscious and unable to think straight.

Today I went back to see doctor for follow-up
post-op visit. He said the x-ray looked good and that it was a smart
decision to have surgery because while operating they found lots
of small bone fragments floating around which needed to be removed.
He told me that in a week I could start walking. But I should not do
anything that might jar the bones at all, such as running.

October 19
At this point I became revolted
by my own smell. Because of the bandages on my shoulder I could
not shower. I did my best to clean myself, but since I couldn't
lift my left arm, my armpit was very foul. Whatever it was that
they rubbed all over me in preparation for surgery seemed to be
fermenting in my armpit and killing all life within a three foot
radius with its odor. (You just let me know when I have shared too
much information)

October 20
It had been a week and I was officially
going stir-crazy. I was very tired. My body was putting all of its
energy into healing the clavicle. I could handle a few hours of
work on the computer but then I would need a nap. I was spending
about 20 hours a day on our living room couch. I was miserable laying
on the couch, staring longingly out the window, but it was the only place I could get semi-comfortable.

On the rare occasion I would leave the house
for a trip in the car, I was so excited to see the outside world.
Just riding down the street as Linda, my soon-to-be-wife, drove
the car was an adventure. All the lights! All the new scenery! Strip
malls have never seemed so inviting! I was like a dog. If I could
have rolled down the window and stuck my head out, tongue wagging
in the wind, I probably would have. It was quite sad, really.

But the excitement was fleeting and soon
enough it was back to the couch.

I have had some pretty bad fractures before,
such as a compound fracture of my right forearm. I had thought that
a collarbone fracture would be less intrusive to everyday life than
an arm fracture. After all, with my arm I had a big cast on for
two months and had to write left-handed. With the collarbone there
wasn't even a cast, how bad could it be?

But with a cast on my arm, I could still
move around, even exercise a little. With a busted collarbone, as
I was learning, my mobility was severely limited. Even walking was
tough. That was incredible frustrating.

October 23
Linda said she had never seen me
look as sad as I did when I took off the bandages and first saw
my new scar, which runs the entire length of the collarbone. But
on the plus side, taking off the bandages meant that I got my first
real shower in two weeks!!! I let the hot water rinse over me for
an hour or so. You know the first shower you take after a long camping
trip? This was ten times better than that. So wonderful.

I tried sleeping in a bed that night but
it was too painful, so I went back to the couch, propped up by pillows.

October 30
I started to walk occasionally.
Getting outside was like being reborn. I felt human again. As soon as I started my walking
routine, the athlete in me was awakened from his slumber and I had the urge to
do more exercise than just walking. I went to the gym and rode the
stationary bike once. But I was so bored after 20 minutes that I
had to give up and go home. Staring at a brick wall while my legs
went in circles was not my idea of exercise. I also finally slept a
full night in my bed. I was making progress.

November 1
At this point it had been about
three weeks since the accident. I was feeling better and itching
to get back out there and exercise. I mean REALLY exercise.

Immediately after the accident, a number
of good friends gave me some good advice: be patient. Nothing
good could come from pushing myself too hard, too soon. My high
school ski coach wrote me the following:

I have a matching pair of once-broken clavicles but it sounds
like you reached another level. A word to the wise… I rushed
back my left collarbone…..actually skied 10K w/o poles two days
later. There was a cost. It healed with a slightly larger bone
callous that knicked away at my rotator every time I served in
tennis or threw a ball…which in three years led to a ruptured
rotator.
It's more than just gutting through the pain… pay attention
to HOW it is healing.

At first it was easy to restrain myself. I was in pain, and any
movement would make it worse. But now it was getting harder to be
patient. My walks had become more lively. On a couple of occasions
I found myself ski-walking – almost bounding – up the hills.

This is the gray area. When could
I start to pick up the activity? Was it still too early? I felt
fine when I pushed it a little bit, but if I did too much and strained
it (or worse yet, fell) I would have set myself back another month.

I thought about trying to workout other parts of my body. Doing
sit-ups, leg presses, or something like that. But I don't enjoy
those things. I hate strength workouts, probably for the same reason I hate treadmills and stationary bikes. I did strength in a gym for years because
I had to, but it was always the most-dreaded part of my training.
So now, given the choice between a walk in the woods or doing strength
exercises in the gym, I chose the walks.

November 3
I'll be honest – I was in no hurry for the snow to arrive.
If there was snow on the ground and I wasn't allowed to go skiing,
it just might kill me. Everyone else out skiing while I sit at home?
I went into a fury just thinking about it.

I felt I was beginning to come around. My ability to get up and out of the house was brightening my spirits. I was becoming encouraged by my progress. But if it snowed, I could no longer go outside and walk the trails. I would be driven back inside until I was given the okay to ski. So while everyone else
fretted about when winter would start, I could say that for the
first time in my life, I was in no hurry for the snow to fall.

Next time: The snow arrives. Doctor still says no skiing,
but could I resist?

For those of you who don’t already know me, my name is Jess Kiesel. I am a cross country skier racing for the University of Utah. I have been skiing since I could stand and racing for as long as I can remember. I come from an incredible family with an incredible athletic history that includes World Cup wins, Olympic gold medals, U.S. National Championships wins, NCAA Championship wins, Junior Olympic wins and medals, former U.S. team coaches and members, and Olympic participants, but most importantly a tremendous love of athletics.

About a month ago I started to feel run down. I brushed it off as slight over-training on top of a week of stressful college final exams, followed by flights across the country and strenuous racing. I figured I would give myself an easy week of training and be ready for the colligate ski season which quickly follows the U.S. Nationals each year. Not true. The first races of the college season were quite disappointing. I was struggling just to get into the top 20, which is very unusual for me. As most XC skiers tend to do after bad races, I was franticly analyzing what could be going wrong, attempting to brush off the bad results as part of the sport, and remain confident in myself all at the same time. I told myself that I was in a slump. I need to train harder or perhaps train less, to be tougher, perhaps if I stayed more focused…anyway, I couldn’t figure it out.

For the past few years I’ve begun noticing large fluctuations in my heart rates during training and especially during interval workouts. My heart rate monitor would occasionally read that my heart was beating 225 bpm which is the highest they are programmed to indicate. At first I thought this was because my chest wasn’t creating a good connection between the monitor’s band, or because I was standing too close to someone else. As time progressed I noticed these fluctuations more often and started to pay more attention to them, but still felt as if they weren’t a major concern. My sister also noticed something similar with her heart a few years before and after having a few tests was deemed fit as a whistle and sent on her way. This is most likely due to the fact that she was never given a stressed electrocardiogram (ECG); which is something I will now convince her to do this summer. The doctor she spoke with said that it was common for athletes to experience strange heart beats and was most likely just a byproduct of overtraining and nothing to worry about. This, anyway, was the message she relayed to me when I finally started to ask my family’s opinions of the symptoms I was having (my family is usually a good source of information on things such as this).

So, I carried on for the next two years or so ignoring these heart rate jumps as much as possible. On occasion, my racing was affected but I always felt as if there was nothing I could do other than be tougher than everyone else and deal with it. Finally this year it all started catching up with me. I could feel these heart rate jumps during races occurring in my chest, and they were becoming increasingly frequent. I was also feeling more and more run down.
Then about ten minutes before the fourth college race of the year during warm-up I felt the irregularity occur in my heart. This time I was finally able to get to one of our school trainers and show him my monitor as well as have him check my pulse and receive a professional opinion. The first thing he said was that it was potentially serious and that I would be scheduled to meet with the schools sports medicine doctor as soon as possible. The trainer said he suspected it was SVT or Supraventricular Tachycardia. His premonition ended up being correct.
The next week was a blur of treadmill testing, late night internet research regarding SVT, WPW (Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome), and other rare pre-excitation syndromes of the heart, talking with trainers, parents, coaches, friends, teammates, roommates, and cardiologists specializing in a procedure known as “catheter ablation,” which was the procedure I was about to undergo. The doctor said that he was surprised I hadn’t been passing out during races and training since my heart rates were reaching beats of 280 or more per minute. Sports heart rate monitors don’t report rates this high which is why I first thought they were around 225bpm. These weren’t just fibrillations, but were full beats. Obviously my heart was unable to refill with blood when beating this fast so my blood wasn’t really pumping. In retrospect, this explains a lot to me about my racing and training the last few years. I consider myself lucky now that I didn’t suddenly die, which I have now been told can happen.

Medically catheter ablation is a relatively minor procedure involving using high frequency radio waves to eliminate or ablate certain pathways in the heart which are creating “interference” between other heart pathways. I later found out it literally means sticking one catheter into the femoral artery and two others into the veins of my left leg, then two more into veins on my right leg, and a sixth into a vein in my neck to “microwave” the electrical impulse sites in my ticker and thus cure my condition.

I had the procedure done last Thursday and the doctor said it went really well. He is pretty sure he was able to locate and ablate the node that was amiss. It was actually a lot more intense than I was expecting. I won’t go into details, but at one point, in the recovery room, I had to ask my parents to leave while I bit down on a pillow and cried as the nurses were stopping the bleeding in my femoral artery that they caused while trying to change my groin bandages.

Long story short, if everything works out I should be able make a full recovery to skiing and in theory do even better now that my heat pumps blood all the time. Sometimes these surgeries don’t work even after repeated attempts, but people who have had this same procedure have gone on to ride in the Tour de France, so I remain hopeful.
I will also take this opportunity to caution anyone who has noticed any strange heart beats in themselves to look into it since in can be life threatening. Most of these heart problems are genetic, but I like to think I have some of the best genetics on earth, and I still had one. I also want to say Thank You to everyone who helped me, worried about me, felt concern for me, or even thought about me. See you next season.

Norwegian National Team coach Svein Tore Samdal denies that there is anyone on the women’s national team with diet problems, but points out the challenge of good nutrition.

– Supplying good nutrition is a constant challenge for us in the support system. We are constantly focused on making sure that the athletes are getting enough and a balanced nutrition that makes it possible to avoid getting sick and achieve optimal results.

I’m not saying that dieting doesn’t exist on the national team, but there is no one on the team with diet-problems, says Samdal.

Dieting isn’t a bigger subject among the women than among the skiers on the men’s team. I have heard more talk among the men and what they weight than by the women, says Samdal.

Hilde Gjermundshaug Pedersen and other women on the national team have expressed to Langrenn.com that dieting is a frequent discussion subject among the women.

Would have gotten help
Samdal says that expertise help would be offered if anyone on the team ever had problems and not eating enough food.
– We have experts than can handle such problems if it should occur. We have had access to this as long as I have worked for the ski federation. We will never have a repeat occurrence of what happened in the eighties.

We would not let someone with diet problems or eating disorders compete in races.
-Anyone declared sick will be pulled from the World Cup. We would not push them “out in the cold” but keep them in the system and help them, says Samdal.

Samdal says that it’s not the skinny skiers but the skiers with muscles that are doing best in today’s World Cup.
– Look at Bjorgen, Neumanova, Smigun, Pedersen, Skofterud, Sachenbacher and Kuenzel; – they are not skinny, they all have muscles, says Samdal.

Norwegian National Team skier Vibeke Skofterud had lost lots of weight through dieting when she made lots of progress two years ago. It didn’t work in the long run.

January 9, 2004

Norwegian National Team skier Hilde Gjermundshaug Pedersen doesn’t like the word dieting, but notes that some skier has it on their plan. She warns very strongly against young skiers trying this in order to become a better ski racer.

-This is a warning to all young skiers since this is not the way to go. Dieting is not a short cut in order to become a better ski racer. The only thing that will make you a better racer is lots and correct training over many years along with a well balanced meal plan with sufficient intake of food and fluid, – says Hilde. G. Pedersen. She also states that it’s important to take one step at a time.

You will only experience a short-lived benefit if you loose lots of weight in a short time-period.
-You need sufficient food and fluid intake in order to become good. Weight loss will give you a quick, but short-term boost in MaxVo2. After that you will experience that your body will start to “eat” its own muscles and that’s the end of the short-term benefit. We have to hope that those who are trying this can control themselves, says Pedersen.

Don’t you need to be skinny to ski fast?
Not at all. Look at Vibeke Skofterud, Marit Bjorgen and myself. We are not skinny. We have muscles and are skiing fast. We have healthy idols, says the veteran ski racer.

Dieting has become a conversation subject in the National team circles as well.
-I’m concerned about cross country skiing if dieting is allowed to develop again. We might then again see the same what we saw in the eighties and I don’t want to be a part of that once again. I’m seeing some of the same signals now as I saw then and don’t enjoy being a part of that type of environment, states Hilde.

Diet-press in the eighties made Pedersen feel that she didn’t fit it. For that reason she quit skiing and started with ski-orienteering instead.
– We had lots of pressure those days. I was never able to loose weight and got frustrated. I had lost before I arrived at the starting line; it was a psychological barrier that was put on. I don’t want upcoming skiers to experience this, says Pedersen

– I have more experience now and am able to handle things like this but I admit that it’s still a tough subject to deal with. I’m concerned about how the younger skiers are dealing with it.

Pedersen has decided to retire after this season but says that she would have chosen an environment where dieting was not a subject if she was going to continue. It’s not ideal when some skiers are having problems. Dieting and eating disorder symptoms become a discussion subject between the girls.

Gjermundshaug wants to express her feelings about this subject in order to warn up-coming ski racers.

-I want to make these statements because it’s not in Cross-Country skiing’s best interest to have this around. There are no short cuts. Desire, training and patience are some of the skills young girls need to have in mind.

Pedersen hopes that the skiers of the future will look healthy and have muscles and “meat” on their bones.

WADA (World Anti Doping Agency) recently decided to remove caffeine from the doping list.

“We have removed caffeine because we consider it a very weak stimulant with very little performance enhancing effect” says WADA-director Rune Andersen.

The leader of the medical committee in FIS, Bengt Saltin recently expressed his disappointment when WADA had decided to keep caffeine on the list. However the agency has now made a “180,” and removed caffeine.

Norwegian skier Ine Wigernaes tested positive for caffeine at the Norwegian 30-kilometer Championship last season — her case will be decided in October.

“All skier need to obey the current list — this is the law, not moral judgement” says Andersen.

Starbucks here we come!

I do much of the ski waxing in our house. I am not sure why this is. My wife has been racing competitively much longer than I have. However, she was racing at a level where there were coaches who tested and selected the wax of the day and just told her what to put on. This was also in the pre fluorocarbon/graphite/molybdenum era and waxing was much simpler then. The state of the art waxes were hydrocarbons or paraffin derivatives. Remember Swix Purple. I used it for about everything except when it was really cold and that called for Start Green. Now that was simplicity.

Today we still have the good old hydrocarbons but no self-respecting skier, even one skiing Back in the Pack, would use this wax for anything but training and cleaning their skis. No, today the waxing game has gotten much more complicated, subtle, and baffling. There are the hydrocarbons, the low fluorocarbons, the medium fluorocarbons, the high fluorocarbons, the pure fluorocarbons, and the graphite, and molybdenum additives. Now each one of these comes in various colors for application at different temperature, humidity and snow conditions.

Thus we come to the first hazard of waxing. This hazard imperils the safety of your wallet. I asked a mortgage broker for a home equity loan to buy ski wax. By the look he gave me I knew that this loan application was in trouble and I didn’t even have the opportunity to fill in my name. The bottom line is this fancy speed powder is expensive. If you purchase all the variants of these waxes there will be serious damage to your wallet and that will be before you invest in the necessary books, manuals and videos necessary to use all this stuff. I also forgot to mention the wax benches, irons, roto brushes, and structure tools. Now, any rational person would read this list and quickly deduce that you probably don’t need a lot of this stuff. But this same rational person quickly becomes a rabid consumer of all the latest wax elixirs after being passed on a gentle down hill by a rival on the racecourse. Irrationality takes over and the arms race of waxing has begun, no matter what the cost, for there is nothing worse than having slower skis during a race.

This brings me the to second major and perhaps the greatest hazard of waxing; waxing your wife’s skis. My wife has some pretty strong competitive instincts. If her skis are slower then anyone else’s she gets grumpy. This is perhaps a gross understatement of how she really feels. During a recent race she had slow skis. After the race she was angry, actually it was more than angry she was raging. It just so happens that I had waxed her skis. I crossed the finish line minutes after her and as I stood there in a dazed and somewhat hypoxic state she stormed up and let me know what she thought of her skis, the wax, the race, and the day. It wasn’t pretty. As I endured this barrage, I thought to myself that she just beat me by minutes so what was she complaining about? Her skis couldn’t have been that bad. As I came out from my hypoxic haze I also realized that I am not even on her competitive horizon. Kicking my butt was something taken for granted.

Although I often do a lot of the waxing it is a cooperative venture between my wife and I. As with any part of a marriage there are negotiations and compromises and blame. We discuss the possible weather and snow conditions for the race day and arrive at a wax combination. I then trundle off to the garage to get the skis ready. I think this is a male thing. It is well known that men look for any excuse to putter around in the garage and waxing skis is as good a reason as any.

If our skis are slow we both know that we jointly chose the wax. However, there is an undertone in her anger that seems to look for someone responsible. I think this is a female thing. As I take the brunt of her anger I can’t help but feel like the responsible party. In this state of mind I am easy prey and I think my wife knows it. For in one of the bolder gambits of the ski arms race, she announced that because of the poor performance of her skis in the last race she’s having her old skis stone ground and buying a new pair with complete stone grind and race prep as well. As I stood there with my mouth open, she delivered the coup de gras and said she was buying new poles too. She turned and looked me in the eye as if to say ” So what do you think about that?” I have learned a few things in marriage that have paid off and one of them is knowing when to say nothing. I said nothing but was thinking about my next trip to the mortgage broker. Perhaps it is time for a remodel of the wax room or maybe I’d better make that a bathroom if I was to have a chance at filling out the application.

Nov 19, 2002
Dear friends, family, and fellow cyclists,
On or around the 22nd of November, certain information regarding myself will become public. It will not be good news but I thought that hearing my side of the story first, might lessen the shock a little when you do read this, or hear about it in a few days. Some of what you will read in the media and hear on the streets will be accurate, and some of it will not. I can assure you however, that everything written HERE in this e-mail is 100% fact.
In early July I began preparing for one of the biggest one-day events that I compete in each yr, The Saturn Cycling Classic. This is a 150mi. race that begins in Boulder, CO. and finishes in Breckenridge, CO. The winner receives a Saturn SUV car. I won the inaugural event in 2000 and have been considered one of the pre-race favorites every since. In the weeks leading up to the event, I was putting in countless 5-7 hr. training rides in the high mountain near where I live, to get ready for the challenge. Such hard training has to be followed up with good recovery otherwise the gains are not fully achieved. Recovery is a pretty wide spectrum: Things like massage, sleep, the right foods/drinks, as well as vitamin supplements are all very important. Multi vitamins, minerals, iron, protein powders, and amino acids have always been a part of my daily training/recovery regime.
About one month prior to the event I ran out of an amino acid supplement that I had been taking. I went to the Vitamin Cottage, which is health food/vitamin store, to purchase more. This store is a chain of reputable, organic food/vitamin stores that has been in business for over 50 years, located throughout Colorado and Washington State. I've always felt onfident about their products as they have an excellent reputation. This day, they were out of the amino acid brand that I normally buy so I looked around and found one that had all the similar numbers and amount's, I purchased it and was on my way.
Race day came and went: My teammate Chris Wherry had an excellent day and won the event. I finished 3rd. I was very content with my result and very happy for Chris. Immediately after the race, I went to medical control (“drug control”) to give a urine sample, which is standard for a race of this caliber and was certainly no surprise as it was listing in the race program weeks prior to the event, that the top 3 finishers plus a few “random's” would be required to be tested, post-race.
About three weeks later I was informed that my “A” sample of urine tested, at that event, showed traces of a banned substance called: 19-norandrosterone. When I first heard this I thought, “this is not possible, there's been a mix-up or something.” I do not take or have ever taken 19-norandrosterone, nor have I ever taken a banned substance of any kind in my 21 year career.
In general, drug tests don't lie so after further research and having the test results checked out by a number of different sources, it became quite clear that the positive drug test was likely caused by a contaminated/tainted supplement which contained this particular banned substance. The amounts that appeared in my sample were consistent with those of a contaminated supplement, and not from someone who was purposely taking the substance as a performance enhancer. Most likely, there was not enough to actually give me any benefit at all but enough to throw up a flag on the test.
For my own peace of mind, I needed to know for sure how this stuff got into my system. I took what remained of this particular amino acid supplement, along with a few others and shipped them off to a lab to be tested for contamination. This is a very expensive procedure and one that uses a majority of the contents so having this done prior to taking it, is just not feasible. I've now learned that apparently, contamination is quite common in amino acid supplements, which are often produced in the same factories or even with the same machinery as the supplements which are known to be banned. The banned stuff is apparently bought by those who are either not tested in their competitions or are not concerned with destroying their bodies. In my 21 yr. career I have been tested literally hundreds of times around the world, both in and out of competition and always with the same results……negative. I have always had the reputation as a “clean” rider and as someone who has nothing to hide. All of this is particularly difficult for me because I've always been against drugs in cycling and I've voiced my opinion numerous times on the topic.
When I'm asked why I don't race more in Europe, it's because I don't do drugs and I don't want to be forced to do drugs. I don't like cheaters and I don't have any respect for an athlete who thinks they have to take drugs to win. I did not get into this sport to destroy my body. Anyone who's ever competed with or against me knows how strongly I feel about the subject of drugs in sports and they know how much I value my own health and well-being.
The lab results confirmed what I had suspected. Each 500mg.capsule of the legal amino acid supplement (L-Tyrosine) was contaminated with an average of 28mg. of 19-norandrosterone. This is more than a slight contamination but rather a gross one. I now had the peace of mind that I was searching for but unfortunately, the drug testing agency does not consider a contaminated supplement as a valid excuse for a positive test. An athlete could knowingly take a contaminated supplement and then always have that as an “out” or defense. To the drug testing agency it's very black and white……A positive is a positive regardless of how it came about, knowingly, or unknowingly. With intent, or without intent, the penalties are the same. They are aware of the growing problem of contaminated or mis-marked legal supplements but are unwilling to make any allowances in the matter.
For a first offender, like myself, the maximum sanction for a 19-norandrosterone positive test is a 2-year suspension. With the help of my lawyer, we are fighting this with everything we have. We did not accept the initial sanction of two years and have requested a hearing, which is allowed by the drug testing agency. We will plead our case as best we can but the testing agency is not in the business of leniency. They are in the business of prosecuting what they feel to be guilty athletes. At this point there
is zero chance of this going away completely and probably the best case scenario is a reduced sentence of 6 months. This will happen only with the help and recommendation of USA cycling and the UCI, which are both completely separate from the drug testing agency.
What the future holds: After first learning of my positive test, I returned to the same store and purchased every bottle they had of this L-Tyrosine amino acid. In all I found four that had the same lot and serial numbers as my original bottle. These are still completely sealed and unopened. They will be invaluable as I/we plan to take legal action against the manufacturer, the supplier, and the retailer of this contaminated product.
Prior to all of this, I had planned to compete for 1-2 more years. (Yes, I know I've been saying that for the last ten years but I really don't plan to be a professional cyclist when I'm 40!) My team is being slightly “downsized” at the moment, but I had a spot on its roster for the 2003 season. The management of the team has been very understanding and supportive of my situation and will continue to stand behind me in hopes that things proceed in a favorable direction for me.
I apologize for the delay in making this announcement to all of you but I know how rumors can spread in cycling especially when this is the subject matter. I've also waited as long as possible in making this announcement in hopes of having all the answers to the questions I will be asked. Unfortunately, that is still not the case as the hearing with the testing agency has not yet happened nor do I know yet, what sort of sanction, if any, the UCI has decided on.
Thank you for reading and at the risk of seeming presumptuous, I thank you all, in advance for your support.
Scott Moninger