Zack Chetrat and Alec Page are set to receive new Pan American Games medals after a failed drug test by Mauricio Fiol resulted in them each being bumped up a position in the 200m butterfly.
On July 23 the Pan American Sports Organization issued a statement disqualifying Fiol from the competition and forfeiting his silver medal. Fiol has maintained his innocence, often publicly, since the positive test.
This gave Chetrat, who finished third behind Fiol in a new Canadian national record of 1:56.90, the silver medal. Page, another Canadian, finished fourth overall in 1:58.01 and was bumped up to a podium position following Fiol’s disqualification.
“The experience of a home Games will be a memory I never forget,” Page told Swimming Canada. “It’s great to be recognized and receive an honour like this, but the true honour was representing my team and my country at a home games. That experience I’ll always carry around my neck.”
The Canadian Olympic Committee was informed of the redistribution of the medals by the PASO after the conclusion of their anti-doping process. The medals will be awarded to both Chetrat and Page during a ceremony organized by Swimming Canada.
“We are happy to see the silver medal go to Zack and that Alec will receive the bronze,” High Performance Director of Swimming Canada John Atkinson said. “Both have trained very hard at our Swimming Canada high performance centres. Zack under Ben Titley in Toronto, and Alec with Ryan Mallette in Victoria. We congratulate both for being strong representatives of Canada at the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games.”
It is unclear at this time when and where both Chetrat and Page will be receiving their new medals.
The updated results bump Canada’s medal total in swimming up to eight golds, 11 silvers, and nine bronze.
To SNC: Does this mean Alec will be getting the Sport Canada card he should have received in the first place?
probably not. page’s world ranking would improve from #68 to #67 in this event.