Brazilian breaststroke Joao Gomes Jr. has received notification of adverse analytical finding from a urine sample taken at the 2014 World Short Course Championships in Doha, Qatar, according to Brazil’s globoesporte.
“He received the news with indignation,” his attorney Marcelo Franklin told GloboEsporte.com. “He is eager to show that he is innocent, and I’m confident that I can prove it.”
Citing Alex Pussielidi, Gomes’ test came after one of his races, where he won three gold medals in relays (200 medley, 400 medley, and 200 medley mixed).
While there is still many motions and hearings to go before Gomes is convicted in the eyes of FINA, in the least this is the second-straight Short Course World Championships at which a swimmer has received an adverse analytical finding in an anti-doping test. Danish distance swimmer Mads Glaesner tested positive at the 2012 Short Course World Championships.
If Brazil is stripped of their three relay gold medals, they would fall from the top of the medals table to 5th.
Of course it’s not Joao’s fault! It’s his doctor! He was the one giving him the stuff and missing the deadline to clean up! If you really believe sports are clean you should also believe in Santa Claus! Russians brazilians Germans Greeks Americans whoever! There’s always doping and it will always be! From the asthma medication that everyone seems to take and it’s so hard to get and prove that you needed it (not) to the more special stuff that the anti doping agencies don’t even know it exists yet. So yeah! Chances are there are plenty of dirty athletes out there…
I hope the big guns like Cielo, Santana, Fratus, Pereira stay out of this. Rio needs it’s home stars.
Cielo has already been caught by doping – remember?
I’m suggesting it for ANYONE who fails a drug test. We are either serious or we aren’t. You fail a drug test, you go to CAS, mount your defense and they decide. You serve a ban if its determined it was out of your control or a technicality, but you are out of the sport if its serious enough (level amount, or type of drug).
If there is 4 or 5 in a sport, then that sport is barred from all major competitions for the Quadrennium. So if Russia is out of the World Championships and Olympics in cross country skiing and swimming, and USA is out of the Worlds and Olympics in Track, then so be it.
If we… Read more »
I agree.. but unlike many other people.. you should not apply this to the past.. If starting now we decide than X dopings means Ban (And under which cases? Only National team athletes? We will count swimmers who only swim in small state competitions also? Jr swimmers who are maybe used by shady and corrupt officers and coaches?) we will have to start the count on the day the new rule become enforced. and not count what happened before.. and that would have to apply to all sports..
If you decide to count cases of the past (GDR swimming for example) there would be a rally for medals people lost that would damage all Countries and nobody would agree (China… Read more »
Number of Doping Cases Involving Swimmers since 2008:
Brazil: 20
Russia: 18
China: 11
USA: 1
These are all found on FINA’s website. The statistics do support some of the criticism directed at these three countries as to anti-doping. I agree–death penalty for athletes who test positive for clear performance enhancing drugs.
I also think the best way to prevent doping is make every NGB put up a $10 million bond. They forfeit the bond if any athlete tests positive at any international competition.
A national body testing its athletes & finding positives is a good thing . The bad is when they suppress the info or aid the athlete to circumvent international testing .
‘ here look – your levels of x y z are getting close to danger zones / cut back or you will fail a test internationally / don’t compete internationally until your levels com down ‘ are examples.
Many athletes have acces to private testing for good & bad reasons – to aid being on the right side or to test masking .
In short ,I just can’t believe only one or two swimmers get caught by international testing & that is the sum of it… Read more »
Death Penalty ??????
Whoa.. and I thought I was harsh 😀
They never learn. You can have all the glory but karma is a b______.
Once you cheated, you should be banned forever. No second chances.
I agree. You go through CAS and prove your case, but the finding of a positive test should mean you’re out for good.
Tell that to Justin Gatlin!! banned twice no?
You don’t hear many people suggesting this when it’s an American that failed a drug test
Go over to letsrun.com and see that’s entirely not true.
I could be wrong. Just speaking on what I have seen in the swimming community. Amy Van Dyken is a hero and Jessica Hardy was a victim of Advocare. Yet we are skeptical of every other country. Don’t get me wrong though, I don’t disagree with anyone here about the need for harsher doping penalties. This is what, the seventh Brazilian to test positive for a diuretic? Cielo tested positive then was allowed to swim Worlds just a few weeks after.
Carl Lewis (Failed many times doping) is still considered by many an example athlete and amazing sportsman and we neven see anyone saying to strip of his medals.. while there is enormous hunt for the medal and publig images of other athletes..
There are no exceptions. Either you’re an American or from outer space, once you cheated, you should be banned forever. That’s why I will never root for Hardy. Heck she can have all the gold medals, but you will always be a cheater in my eyes.
100% agree. The only way to even have a chance of stopping people from doping is for the punishment to be a banned for life. That would not stop everyone, but might serve as a better deturent than 6 months or a 1 yr. ban. This should be for everyone no matter what country they represent. if it happens to be a US swimmer, so be it …banned for life.
He only swam in the heats of the relays as well. The 4 swimmers that raced in the finals must be holding their breath. The question I have is this: if Gomes Jr is given a ban, will Brazil’s world record from the final still stand (since he wasn’t a part of the team)? I can understand if the medal is withdrawn, but the record?
The finalists of the 3 relays must be holding.. not only the guys who got the WR.. the girls (who never even got a World Medal before) must be pretty stressed out now..
The worst fact is that he only swam heats to have a chance to get a medal.. and he only went to Worlds is because Felipe Lima is worse than him on SC..
Sprintdude9000 – that’s an interesting question. Let me ask.
Yes good question, but the answer can only be that the WR can’t stand.
If a ban is given, then right to swim in the final was obtained by cheating. The WR may for a part have been a result of racing in a WC final, i.e. with the strongest possible competition and the biggest possible atmosphere.
Moreover, in theory the finals swimmers had an unfair advantage because they either didn’t have to swim heats (the finals breaststroke swimmer) or they could afford to put in less effort in heats.
Even if one thinks these arguments are not very convincing, I think even a minor unfair advantage should already be enough.
Of course the incentives to dope for Brazilian swimmers will keep increasing in the run up to Rio. Does anyone really believe anything else?
“He is eager to show that he is innocent, and I’m confident that I can prove it.” Lawyers, eh? Do they do formal classes in weasel-words. Neither the swimmer nor the lawyer actually say he’s innocent. The swimmer says he’s eager to show he’s innocent (not the same as showing his innocence) and the lawyer says he is confident he can prove it. Well he would, wouldn’t he?
To be fair that may be some translation issues… A lot of the above article seems translated and comes off weird sounding.