In a statement sent to SwimSwam on Monday, the upstart International Swimming League (ISL) has said that Will Licon remains eligible to compete in the league in spite of an anti-doping rules violation that was announced last week by USADA. Licon was announced in June as a member of the Los Angeles Current.
The Statement Reads:
“ISL rules state clearly that no previously disqualified athlete for breaking anti-doping rules will be allowed to compete in any ISL competition. Thus, Licon has no problem to compete in ISL, since he has not been disqualified by the appropriate body.”
While the exact implications of ISL’s “zero tolerance policy” for anti-doping offenses have not been parsed publicly, this is the clearest line that’s been drawn for what ISL considers to be in violation of that policy.
The ISL clarification that there must have been a “disqualification” for their lifetime ban to take effect means that swimmers like Cesar Cielo, who like Licon did not receive a suspension for his anti-doping rules violation, should also be eligible for ISL competition. We have asked the ISL to elaborate on the term “disqualification” as it relates to cases like that of Grigory Tarasevich, who was never suspended but did lose results after testing positive for a banned substance.
The ISL did clarify that athletes would be cleared to compete in the league in cases Dutch swimmer Kira Toussaint, who was flagged for an anti-doping rules violation, accepted a temporary suspension, but ultimately had her case dropped altogether.
We have also asked about whether the ISL feels that this puts too much faith in the consistency of anti-doping governing bodies; for example, given almost identical circumstances, American swimmer Amanda Kendall received a 3-month suspension for a violation that Licon was only warned for. The league says that they are relying on “the appropriate anti-doping (body’s) final decision.”
Of the group mentioned above, Toussaint, Tarasevich, Cielo, and Kendall have all not been announced as members of teams in the inaugural season of the ISL.
The LA Current is one of 8 teams that are scheduled to compete in the inaugural season of the International Swimming League. The Current are in Group B, and their first meet is scheduled for October 18th-19th in Lewisville, Texas.
Update: ISL has provided clarification on some of the gray-areas. That information has been updated above.
They’re just making this up as it goes.
I’m still putting it at less than 50% chance that this actually gets off the ground on the first supposed date. Seems a lot of “meh, we’ll figure it out” type stuff going on with this league…
Are we ever gonna talk about how many world class swimmers have “asthma”?
It’s not just swimmers. Quite a few elite athletes in many endurance (training/racing) sports have asthma. There are a plethora of studies documenting this, and more than a few that strongly suggest that competing at an elite level in some sports (definitely including swimming) predisposes to or exacerbates asthma (“exercise-induced asthma” which is a bit different than typical asthma in non-athletes).
Factually, 1 in 13 people have asthma so it’s not statistically unlikely that a few world class athletes would have the condition as well.
Also, in my experience as a lifelong swimmer I developed asthma that was triggered by my allergies to mold, especially those found in dark, damp places (i.e. a swimming pool).
Is it potentially easy to scam doctors into believing you have asthma? Yeah, but ultimately the doctor that signs a TUE for an asthmatic athlete is legally declaring that said athlete needs the medication.
Lastly, it’s not our place to assume or presuppose that anyone’s medical condition is “made up” or inherently fraudulent or malevolent.
I agree with everything you said Asthmatic. But Doctors sign prescriptions and prognosis all the time that aren’t necessarily 100% true, or they just haven’t reached a definitive conclusion.
If he did not test positive then it is obviously one that clears the system very quickly . Handy to know .
Or maybe, he could take whatever, and the tests would come back negative.
Go will
Appreciate the support Steve
Aren’t his and Amanda Kendall’s situation almost identical? She never tested positive and USA swimming banned her 3 months…
Almost. Except in Amanda’s case she was given a 6 month suspension instead of a warning.
aww was rooting for will licon this pan ams. i thought it was his breakout meet. too bad, he is also a drug cheat. NIC FINK FOR GOLD!
??… He declared his inhaler for Pan Ams before USA swimming even told him that it contained an illegal compound, and he even went to USADA directly to basically turn himself in once he found out. Drug cheats wouldn’t declare their substances to their governing bodies, especially in the U.S., nor would they turn themselves in to their respective national anti-doping agency. Know your facts dude..
And even after testing, no trace was found in his system.
Ok, just because these comments are going to be filled with outrage/confusion about the seemingly preferential treatment Licon got…
A) Licon was given a warning for declaring a substance that was illegal but was prescribed to him for Asthma
B) Licon was tested and did not test positive for the prohibited substance he declared
C) Licon stopped using that inhaler as soon as he learned it was prohibited
D) After reviewing Licons medical records USADA found it appropriate to only give him a warning
It seems obvious that Licon wasn’t trying to cheat and attempted to follow protocol but screwed up. He did not test positive for the substance in question and it was prescribed to him… Read more »
” Licon wasn’t trying to cheat…” What does this mean? I think what really happened is that he took a banned substance at some point (through the inhaler), realized that he didn’t have a TUE, so he declared it before taking the anti-doping test in case it showed up in the test. I don’t know how you can conclude from this whether or not he was trying to cheat. I’m not going to go into Licon’s motives or state of mind, but for sure he got lucky that the test came up negative, otherwise he would have been suspended.
I think his point is a lot of people don’t realize how restrictive and convoluted the anti-doping protocols are, and it’s actually quite amazing we don’t see more cases of athletes screwing it up like Licon did here. They’re people to, it can be hard to keep track of your prescriptions for medical conditions and the supplements you take or may be considering taking. Obviously the fault is on Licon, but people can make stupid mistakes all the time, he’s human. The story here is pretty obvious, the dude just forget to get a TUE
Also the drug he took only stays in your bloodstream for 2.5 hours, so it’s not a complete miracle he didn’t test positive.
You… Read more »
You seems to answer your own question about ISL– Licon did not test positive but Cox did… there is no way to know whether someone “intentionally” cheat or not…though I am not saying either one intentionally cheated.. but like other commenters, we can’t determine but take the word for it.
But this case did make Lochte’s 14 month ban seem exceptionally long – he also did not tested positive and the violation was for a method (not a banned substance). Intentionally or not, Lochte can’t get performance enhancement out of the vitamin water. I can see someone may even try to fight and argue against the amount taken (e.g. the form may said he got a 250ml bag of… Read more »
@IM Fan. What if Will was from a communist country and He was asked to pee in a cup at 3 am by people he didn’t recognize and didnt have credentials and then refused?
We would not know if he tested positive or not. But in your opinion it seems if the test isn’t ran then you are positive.
And also…. let’s be honest here. There are tons of top level swimmers who have “asthma” to get inhalers. Wouldn’t be surprised if he was diagnosed with Asthma after he got to college, like Tons of people do to gain a competitive advantage…. so many athletes are doing this…
Almost everyone has used their teammates inhaler to help… Read more »
Except that wasn’t the case. He went directly to USADA to notify them that he had been prescribed an illegal inhaler, effectively turning himself in, instead of trying to cover his tracks or trying to get rid of the evidence as in Sun’s case. So there’s absolutely no correlation between Sun Yang’s controversial incident with the anti-doping officials and what happened with Licon.
And as someone who’s known Licon for over 20 years, I can say with the upmost certainty that he’s had severe asthma since he was at least 3 years old, well before he even started swimming.
Why not try looking into some facts before you start publicly speculating.
What a stupid comment. He has had asthma since a child and been on inhalers since before age 10. He did not “get asthma” in college in order to gain access to inhalers.
Holy Molly! That’s what I was missing! That’s why I never made it to the top! Everyone around me was sharing their inhalers!
You do realize so many swimmers “try” many ways to become faster or train better? More often than not with things that could be illegal where they don’t even check.
Also what makes the Sun Yang incident a big deal that potential could even invalidate the idea of a fair clean sport with equal treatment of all athletes if that HE’S ALREADY TESTED POSITIVE IN THE PAST. It’s not like this guy was some innocent athlete who had never had any doping related issues in the past… HE TESTED POSITIVE FOR A PROHIBITED SUBSTANCE, THEN NOT ONLY THAT, WAS GIVEN A SUPSENSION SHORTER THAN WHAT ANYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD WOULD’VE GOTTEN SINCE HE’S THE CHINESE GOLDEN BOY, IN SECRET.
So yes, when you hear that Sun Yang and his team of Physicians and Chinese officials decided that the testers weren’t trustworthy and SMASHED A VILE OF HIS BLOOD, yes… Read more »
“WAS GIVEN A SUPSENSION SHORTER THAN WHAT ANYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD WOULD’VE GOTTEN SINCE HE’S THE CHINESE GOLDEN BOY, IN SECRET.” – you do realize that you’re commenting on an article about an American who got 0 months suspension for taking a banned substance, right?
You’ve got some crazy blinders on. It’s actually hilarious you’re choosing the Sun Yang hill to die on. Objectively speaking the initial incident and sanction for Sun is really similar to the incident here with Licon, except Licon is not receiving any suspension.
Will Licon was prescribed an inhaler, it contained a banned substance. He could have filed for a TUE and potentially been approved but he failed to take that step.
Sun Yang was prescribed a medication by a physician as well (same as Licon). In this case the substance was actually legal months prior and was newly added to the banned substance list, but only for in-competition use. He could have applied for a TUE but… Read more »
Napoleon complex testing agencies throwing the threats & warnings around. Go spend your time testing the known & suspicious folks. SCAM!