Irish athlete not the first to take a hit for positive test
Ireland’s boxing team has been thrown into crisis as O’Reilly’s positive test emerges on the eve of the Rio Games. He has been suspended pending an appeal.
Martin Fagan, a marathon runner, was banned for two years in 2012 after he failed a doping test. Battles against depression, injury, and money troubles combined and led him to take the performance enhancer EPO.
Cian O’Connor burst into the national conscience as the only Irish medalist at the 2004 Summer Olympics. It later emerged his horse, Waterford Crystal, tested positive for a prohibited substance. O’Connor was stripped of his medal by the Federation Equestre Internationale and was banned for three months. However, the federation found that he did not deliberately attempt to affect the performance of the horse.
At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, showjumper Denis Lynch withdrew from the showjumping final just hours before it began after his horse, Lantinus, tested positive for the banned substance capsaicin.
Lynch claimed the substance was present in a cream he had put on the horse called Equiblock, which is similar to Deep Heat used on humans. In October 2008 an FEI tribunal suspended Lynch for three months.
Two years after winning three gold medals and a bronze in 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Michelle Smith’s career lay in ruins. She always denied taking any performance- enhancing drugs, but Smith was later found guilty of interfering with the sample.
READ HOW THE STORY BROKE HERE:
Olympic boxer Michael O'Reilly suspended following drugs test fail
Irish boxer who failed drug test in build-up to Rio Olympics named and provisionally suspended
Ireland's preparations for Olympics in tatters as Michael O'Reilly suspended
Groups urged to back Michael O’Reilly from a backlash
Michael O’Reilly’s Olympic path has been a rocky road
Irish Olympics scandal: Failed test ‘no innocent mistake’
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
