Alejandro Madde contributed to this article.
“The best day of my career, the worst day of my life.”
Those are the first (translated) heartfelt words of Peruvian swimmer Mauricio Fiol in a YouTube video posted to his personal account late Thursday evening, describing the day where he learned that he had tested positive for the banned substance stanozolol.
After two months and almost no official news from Peruvian swimmer Mauricio Fiol’s case, he decided to break his silence and share a personal video telling his truth about how the day where he was supposed to fulfill what he calls “the biggest dream of all”, winning the Pan American gold medal in the men’s 100 fly on August 16th, became probably the worst day of his entire swimming career, because this was the day he found out that he tested positive in an antidoping control 4 days earlier, “..my legs were shaking and I almost couldn’t breathe..” are some of the words used by Fiol in the video to describe his feelings when he was told about the anti-doping results.
On August 14th Fiol had just earned a silver medal in the men’s 200 fly at the 2015 Pan American Games and in the process set a National Record of 1:55.15 and made himself a contender for a medal at the 2016 Olympic Games.
Just two days later, and 3 hours before the men’s 100 fly final, Fiol’s doping controls had come back with adverse analytical findings, the Peruvian team suspended him, and he would eventually be stripped of his silver medal and his results from the meet.
Days later, Fiol requested to have his “B” sample tested, and in the two months since there has been little public progress or update on the case.
Throughout the video, Fiol issues, amongst others, apologies to his family and his team. The 21-year old swimmer describes himself as an athlete who believes in clean sport, and says that now is the time to fight for his innocence, “I have been continuing training, trusting that one of these days this nightmare will end” he says, claiming that he never consumed any illegal substance. He calls upon the assistance of experts to help him in his cause.
Stanozol is an anabolic steroid developed to treat certain medical conditions like osteoporosis, as well as to reduce the frequency and severity of attacks in cases of hereditary angioedema.
Times like these swimswam should have an option to upload a photo
I believe he’s sponsored by Herbalife since I can see him wearing their name tag on certain athletic wear on his Facebook account. If he is and is taking their product, it could explain his positive and also why dietary and fitness supplements in an unregulated industry are hardly the panacea they’re made out to be. He’s either extremely naive or has been poorly advised. He may have to take his lump and move on and learn from this experience.
Or he’s lying.