China bans it's athletes from eating red meat...

Chinese athletes headed for the London Games have now been told to stop eating many forms of meat, due to fears that they could consume the banned substance clenbuterol. It was recently found that the prohibited substance was in over 52 per cent of meat products in Beijing and the levels exceeded the drug test standard.

Huang Wenyi, who is set to compete at the London Olympics in the Lightweight Women's Double Sculls, revealed on micro blogging site Sina Weibo that clenbuterol, or "lean meat power", which is given to livestock in order to bulk them up and produce leaner meat, was even found in pork products that are raised and prepared exclusively for athletes. She said: "The Administration issued an urgent order banning athletes from eating pork, beef or lamb outside. When dining out, we are only allowed to eat fish and chicken.

Previous Posts...
Clenbuterol...The drug to cause headlines at the London Olympics?
Alberto Contador stripped of his 2010 Tour de France title...

Alberto Contador stripped of his 2010 Tour de France title...

Perhaps not exactly a running story but it may well have an impact on the upcoming Olympic games. Back in Oct 2011 , I had a post up about the banned substance Clenbuterol and how athletes had traces of it in their bodies due to eating contaminated meat. The ruling made on Monday sends out a clear message to anyone using the banned substance that 'eating contaminated meat' won't work as an excuse for the upcoming games. The Contador story below...

MADRID (AP) - Alberto Contador was stripped of his 2010 Tour de France title Monday and banned for two years after sport's highest court found the Spanish cyclist guilty of doping. The Court of Arbitration for Sport suspended the three-time Tour champion after rejecting his claim that his positive test for clenbuterol was caused by eating contaminated meat on a 2010 Tour rest day. WADA President John Fahey described the court's judgment as "an appropriate decision ... which represents the effective nature of the World Anti-Doping Code."

The ruling came just three days after U.S. federal prosecutors dropped a doping investigation involving seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong. The American was a teammate of Contador during the Spaniard's 2009 Tour victory. The revised list of champions shows Armstrong and Contador combined to win nine of the 11 Tours from 1999-2009. Contador blamed steak bought from a Basque producer for his high reading of clenbuterol, which is sometimes used by farmers to fatten their livestock. To avoid a doping ban, he needed to prove how the anabolic drug entered his body and convince the panel he was not to blame.

In its ruling, CAS said the presence of clenbuterol was more likely caused by contaminated food supplement than by eating contaminated meat. "Unlike certain other countries, notably outside Europe, Spain is not known to have a contamination problem with clenbuterol in meat," CAS said in its ruling in Lausanne, Switzerland. "Furthermore, no other cases of athletes having tested positive to clenbuterol allegedly in connection with the consumption of Spanish meat are known."

Contador is one of only five cyclists to win the three Grand Tours - the Tour, the Giro and the Vuelta. He also won the Tour de France in 2007 and 2009. He becomes only the second Tour de France champion to be disqualified and stripped of victory for doping. The first was American Floyd Landis, who lost his 2006 title after testing positive for testosterone. Contador kept racing after his positive test on a 2010 Tour rest day. He will be stripped of all results from races in which he participated since Jan. 25, 2011 - the day the Spanish federation proposed a one-year ban. That period includes his Giro d'Italia victory last season.

Clenbuterol...The drug to cause headlines at the London Olympics?

Over the last few days, there has been a few news items covering the use and detection of one particular drug...Clenbuterol.

Clenbuterol is an anabolic steroid that is banned in sports as a performance-enhancing drug. When used, it causes an increase in aerobic capacity, central nervous system stimulation, and an increase in blood pressure and oxygen transportation.

About a year ago, the drug hit the headlines when Alberto Contador, the 2010 winner of the Tour de France revealed that a urine sample he had given on 21 July during the Tour had contained traces of Clenbuterol. He has stated that due to the number of other tests he passed and that only a tiny amount of the substance was detected in the one he failed, that food contamination was to blame.

The issue here is that in some countries like China and Mexico, Clenbuterol is used by farmers on cattle to produce leaner, more valuable meat even though it is banned. Traces of the drug however pass into the meat of the animal which in turn can be eaten by people.

During this summer’s under-17 football World Cup in Mexico, Fifa revealed that 109 positive tests were recorded for the banned drug out of 208 urine samples taken during the tournament. The statistics are so extraordinary that both Fifa and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) have confirmed they will not be prosecuting any cases, blaming the failed tests on contaminated meat.
WADA has shelved a similar case involving Danish cyclist Philip Nielsen, who tested positive for the steroid after the 2010 Tour of Mexico. In the Contador case above, he is claiming that he ate some meat from Spain, which was contaminated with Clenbuterol.

In principle, the edict  of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) remains that competitors are responsible for what they themselves consume.

WADA warned competitors in the Pan American Games which began in Mexico on October 14 about the dangers of consuming local meat, stating:”We have received compelling evidence..that indicates a serious health problem in Mexico to meat contaminated with clenbuterol.” It urged athletes only to eat in canteens regarded as safe by the organisers and to try to eat the same food in large numbers.

With the 2012 Olympic games in London supposed to have the highest number of drugs tests ever, expect to hear the name Clenbuterol again.