Brazilian Olympian Henrique Martins has tested positive for a banned substance, and will present his case at a doping panel hearing in Switzerland, according to Brazilian media.
The 26-year-old Martins failed a surprise doping test on March 27, according to Brazil’s Globo.com. He tested positive for a substance banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), though the specific substance is not yet known. Martins denies taking the substance, according to Globo’s report.
Martins will contest a potential ban at a hearing in Switzerland, and his case should be settled within three to six months according to Globo. He is being represented by Marcelo Franklin, the well-known lawyer for the Brazilian swimming federation who has previously had success getting suspensions of Brazilian swimmers either shortened or overturned. He represented Cesar Cielo, Joao Gomes Jr and Etiene Medeiros. (You can read more about their cases here, here and here).
Martins is a short course world champ for Brazil and was a finalist in the 50 fly and 4×100 medley relay at last summer’s World Championships. He missed qualifying for Pan Pacs earlier this year but would still be in line to swim at the South American Championships, per Globo’s reporting.
Crazy to see more Brazilians getting caught. Unfortunately for the swimming world they have a good lawyer that helps them get minimal to no sanction.
I wanted to let you all know about another case in South America. There is a 14 year old girl from Uruguay that tested positive on a control at the end of November beginning of Dec and is still competing and has yet not received a sanctioned by ONAU , FINA or WADA. Crazy that the whole swimming family in Uruguay knows about it but yet there is no public release or sanction to the teen. The craziest thing is that her times do not stand out to even justify the intake of banned… Read more »
That’s because cross contamination and negligence do exist, not everyone that fall in the test is a dirty dopper that must burn in hell forever.
I agree!
Hude each, but maybe cielo getting caught scared them nd that’s why they swam poorly in Rio. It’s beyond suspicious
There’s no evidence (that I’m aware of) that Brazil has a state-sponsored doping program. Until then, I think it makes more sense to look at each case as an individual making an individual decision.
with every new case they get closer and closer to the Russia/China comparison….
Coach John,
there will never be a state-sponsored doping in Brazil. Swimming is too small for even someone to care. Negligence? There’s a lot. Some dirigents protecting some dopers? It happened too.
But the top politicians don’t know the difference between a 200breast and 200medley. They are very busy counting they money to care. Unfortunately, there are even some people who think swimming is a very expensive sport because it needs a big pool and wastes a lot of water.
I should clarify I never accused them of state-sponsored doping. I was more makin the refernce of the quantity being high enough to compare the amount of positives to those countries eventually.
Brazil is far away from the top of the doping list. If we get Wada positive tests, (all Sports):
1-Italy
2-France
3-US
4-Australia
5-Belgium
6-India
7-Russia
8-Brazil
Another one bites the dust