FINA Doping Panel: Fujimori’s Honesty Preventing Reduction in Suspension

A FINA Doping Panel says that Hiromasa Fujimori‘s honesty is currently preventing a reduction in his two-year doping suspension. The Doping Panel is urging WADA to review the case and either make an exception to its rules or amend the rules to prevent similar situations in the future.

The 27-year-old Fujimori won a bronze medal at the 2018 Short Course World Championships in the 200 IM. In a doping test later that night, Fujimori tested positive for methylephedrine, a banned substance. He was stripped of his bronze medal and given a two-year ban from January of 2019 to December of 2020, leaving him ineligible for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Both Fujimori’s A and B samples tested positive. He immediately accepted a voluntary provisional suspension, according to FINA documents. The case went to a FINA Doping Panel, an independent panel of experts who rule on doping violations. That doping panel applied a two-year ban to Fujimori, based on FINA rules, but in its decision document, the Panel openly advocated against those rules, saying Fujimori’s commitment to honesty is actually preventing the panel from reducing his suspension.

“This case is, at least in part, about honesty and the commitment to integrity that may perversely cause a virtuous young athlete to lose his opportunity to compete in the Olympic Games,” the Panel writes. Here are a few key details the Panel reference in the document:

• Fujimori’s sample tested positive for methylephedrine, but only in an “extremely low” estimated concentration of 16 micrograms/mL. WADA rules prohibit methylephedrine in concentrations greater than 10 micrograms/mL.
• Methylephedrine is a common ingredient in over-the-counter supplements and cold medications, and is also a common contaminant of supplements and medications.
• Many methylephedrine cases have the suspension reduced to six months or less if they can identify how the methylephedrine got into their system. The Panel says that if Fujimori simply told the panel that he believed an over-the-counter cold medication had caused his positive test, it was probable that his suspension would have been reduced from two years to 3-6 months.
• However, Fujimori says he tested all of the supplements and medications he was using at the time, and none showed the presence of methylephedrine. He also says he can’t recall using a cold medication in the time leading up to his positive test.

In fact, an excerpt from Fujimori’s testimony to the Doping Panel shows that Fujimori was well aware that lying about taking a cold medication would likely have reduced his suspension and kept him eligible for the 2020 Olympics:

QUESTION BY ARBITRATOR: Can you explain your general values related to honesty?

MR. FUJIMORI: What do you mean?

QUESTION BY ARBITRATOR: Are you honest?

MR. FUJIMORI: Yes.

QUESTION BY ARBITRATOR: Why?

MR. FUJIMORI: Because I don’t want to live lying to people.

QUESTION BY ARBITRATOR: What made you decide you want to live without lying?

MR. FUJIMORI: It is a difficult question. Since I am little my parents always told me we had to live honestly without lying. My father as a coach told me and others that if we lack honesty it can influence the way competitions turn out.

QUESTION BY ARBITRATOR: Do you understand that you could have been dishonest and said that you used cold medication and perhaps gotten a less lengthy sanction?

MR. FUJIMORI: Yes.

QUESTION BY ARBITRATOR: Is that something you considered?

MR. FUJIMORI: Yes. I have considered.

QUESTION BY ARBITRATOR: Can you explain your process of thinking?

MR. FUJIMORI: I considered submitting this theory knowing I could have participated in the Olympic Games, but it is at odds with my intention of living truthfully.

The FINA Doping Panel commended Fujimori’s commitment to honesty, noted it as an example of “Olympism”, and wrote that it found Fujimori to be a credible and honest witness. Fujimori has been drug tested 51 times since 2010, and this 2018 test was his first-ever positive test.

The Panel also wrote that many other athletes have been found to have “fabricated evidence of the source of their positive test” in order to get a reduced suspension, a move the Panel says is risky and dishonest, but also considered by some to be “a relatively simple deception to get away with.”

Between Fujimori’s honest-to-a-fault testimony, the low levels of the substance in his sample, and what the Panel deemed the unlikelihood that Fujimori was using the substance intentionally to enhance his performance, the Panel wrote that it would support a reduced sanction. However, current FINA and WADA rules prevent the Panel from reducing his suspension at all from the two-year ban.

The Panel wrote that its “hands are tied in this regard,” though it urged WADA to review the case to determine whether it could make an exception to standing rules, or amend the rules to allow “discretion” to reduce sanctions in unique circumstances like these.

You can read the full FINA Doping Panel decision document here.