Banned Steroid That Continues to Haunt Sportsmen

Greg Rusedski is just the latest top sportsman to be caught up in the nandrolone nightmare. He joins a distinguished list of names that includes the 1992 Olympic 100m champion Linford Christie, the former Manchester United defender Jaap Stam and the British champion boxer Jonathan Thaxton.

It first became apparent in 1999 that nandrolone was a major threat when 343 athletes worldwide tested positive for the drug. The steroid obliterated the career of Britain's Mark Richardson, a 4x400m gold medallist at the 1991 world championships and the 1998 Commonwealth 400m silver medallist.

"You have to ask anyone why they still use supplements," said Richardson last night. "I find it difficult to accept that you still have governing bodies still accepting the use of supplements."

Richardson was forced to pull out of the 2000 Sydney Olympics after a positive test for nandrolone, and subsequently had a two-year ban reduced by the In ternational Association of Athletics Federations after he agreed to publicise the dangers of supplements.

"Athletes realise if you use supplements you use them at your own peril," he said.

Dick Pound, the chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency, which is based in Montreal, supported Richardson, where Rusedski's hearing is due to take place. "You have to wonder about people," he told the Guardian from Canada. "They know nandrolone is on the banned list. It is just reckless."

Last year UK Sport released a report written by a panel of experts that warned competitors about the dangers of taking supplements following a worldwide survey.

It discovered that of 634 samples taken from supplements and analysed by the International Olympic Committee-accredited laboratory in Cologne 94 contained banned anabolic steroids.

In addition, the Austrian federal ministry for social security and public welfare carried out similar tests on 54 supplements. It found 22% contained banned substances.

In all cases, athletes taking the contaminated supplements would provide a positive sample if tested for drugs under IOC rules.

"Competitors are again strongly advised that using dietary supplements carries the potential risk of unknowingly ingesting a banned substance," the UK Sport report concluded.

"We therefore recommend UK Sport to encourage more manufacturers and suppliers of sports supplements to strive to eliminate problem substances, and to label their products clearly to enable sport participants to avoid substances banned by the IOC."

Richardson was one of four top British athletes caught up in the controversy involving nandrolone. He joined the European 200m champion Doug Walker, 400m hurdler Gary Cadogan and Christie.

But the problem was not confined to Britain. The 200m world champion Merlene Ottey of Jamaica and former 5000m Olympic champion Dieter Baumann of Germany were also among those who fell foul of the nandrolone epidemic.

The one common theme was that they all declared their innocence. Richardson called his positive test "a farce" and offered to submit to a lie detector to prove his innocence. Baumann, claiming an outside party maliciously injected nandrolone into his toothpaste, filed a lawsuit.

UK Athletics cleared Cadogan, Christie and Walker after determining that "it could not be proven beyond reasonable doubt that the substance present in the sample was derived from a prohibited substance" - although the IAAF rejected that ruling and banned them.

After Stam tested positive for nandrolone following his transfer from Manchester United to Lazio, Fifa, world football's governing body, carried out their own survey. They tested 356 professional players as part of a study that yielded a problematic result: these athletes, when under high stress, were capable of producing nandrolone levels above the IOC's allowed limit.