2-Time Canadian Olympian Markus Thormeyer Gets Doping Ban After Sharing a Water Bottle

Two-time Canadian Olympian Markus Thormeyer is two weeks from completing a 12-month suspension for an anti-doping rules violation. The suspension will expire on February 14, 2023.

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The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport announced the suspension on Friday, saying that Thormeyer tested positive in an out-of-competition doping control test on January 19, 2022.

Thormeyer’s hearing was on October 5, 2022, though the announcement wasn’t made until four months later. The CCES says that the decision was rendered on November 9, 2022 and that the organization waited for the appeal deadline to pass before publicly announcing the suspension.

Thormeyer’s suspension was retroactively dated to February 15, 2022, when he began a provisional suspension. His last meet was the VPSC Winter Invitational in December 2021.

Thormeyer tested positive for the substance formally known as SARM LGD-4033, but marketed as the pharmaceutical Lingandrol. Ligandrol is not an anabolic steroid, but has similar effects and can be used to treat muscle weakness and stimulate muscle growth. While Ligandrol has a superior side effect profile to anabolic steroids, the FDA warns that it can lead to serious liver damage.

The substance is the same one that earned Australian Shayna Jack a four-year ban in 2019 that was ultimately reduced to 2 years.

The penalty for a first positive test for the substance can carry up to a four-year ban, but the CCES reduced that to 12 months after a finding of “no significant fault or negligence,” though it did not agree that he had “no fault or negligence.”

Thormeyer explained that the positive was caused by sharing a water bottle with his partner Chad Poloni on January 17 or 18, 2022. He says that “he had no knowledge of his partner’s use of SARMs at the time and did not know that he was using the same water bottle (that was used) to take the prohibited substance,” according to the official case file.

Thormeyer said that if he had known that his partner was taking SARMs, he would have taken precautionary steps to prevent accidental contamination.

Ligandrol is taken by mixing drops of the substance with water. Poloni is not an active elite athlete and therefore not bound to the rules of the World Anti-Doping Code.

The ruling would render Thormeyer ineligible for participation in the International Swimming League, if that league returns to competition after a hiatus with the same hard-line, zero-tolerance anti-doping rules. Thormeyer competed in the first two seasons of that league, first with the New York Breakers and then with the Tokyo Frog Kings.

Thormeyer has been a key leg of Canadian relays as a freestyler and backstroker for more than half-a-decade. He swam on the Canadian 400 mixed medley relay that won a bronze medal at the 2017 World Championships and also won an individual gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in the 100 back.

The 25-year-old hasn’t swum a long course best time since 2019. At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, he finished 19th in the 100 back and 16th in the 200 back. He also anchored Canada’s 4th-place 400 free relay and their 7th-place 400 medley relay in finals.

Thormeyer is the current Canadian Record holder in the 100 and 200 backstroke in long course. He also holds a pair of Canadian relay records.

Thormeyer is a former member of Swimming Canada’s Athlete’s Council and outside of sport works as a researcher at the Tseng Lab at the University of British Columbia. He is working on a Ph.D. in the department of Zoology at UBC, focusing on global insect species diversity.