Steroid Cases Embarrass ATP

One of the worst fears a professional sports organization can have appeared to come true Wednesday, as information surfaced that products dispensed by ATP Tour trainers may have been contaminated, possibly causing seven tennis players to test positive for the banned steroid nandrolone.

The embarrassing disclosure came from ATP officials in a statement and subsequent conference call. Additionally, the ATP announced new policies and procedures, most notably that trainers no longer will dispense vitamin, mineral products or electrolyte tablets.

“The bottom line is that for the last two years we have warned players not to take any kind of supplement, but our trainers did not understand that electrolyte tablets, mineral or vitamin supplements were the type of product that was also included in the category of products that were at risk,” said Mark Young, the ATP’s general counsel and executive vice president.

The key player in the case -- the only one to be identified -- was 28-year-old Bohdan Ulihrach of the Czech Republic, who was banned for two years in May after testing positive for the performance-enhancing substance. Because the ATP could not rule out the possibility that its trainers caused the contamination of an electrolyte product, his two-year ban and $43,770 fine were dismissed and his lost ranking points were restored.

Information that trainers were dispensing an electrolyte supplement came out in mid-May as a second drug case moved through the system, the ATP said. The ATP had been unaware of such practices.

“That information is material in and of itself because obviously it means that the ATP trainers were dispensing products that the ATP itself was advising players not to take,” Young said.

Concern heightened when Dr. Christiane Ayotte, director of the IOC’s doping control laboratory in Montreal, noticed a particularly unusual pattern. From August 2002 to May 2003, there were seven samples showing traces of nandrolone above the IOC limit of two nanograms per milliliter. Thirty-six other players showed traces below the cutoff point, which would not be considered a doping offense. But Ayotte found ann “analytical fingerprint” showing the contamination was from a common source.

“That was significantly strange and unusual [enough] to us that I alerted the ATP,” she said.”

ATP Chief Executive Mark Miles, addressing the question of how the episode reflected on his organization, said he felt the case was handled with “integrity and with openness.”

“I actually think as troubling as this is, the situation says a lot about the ATP or the character of the ATP,” he said. “Mistakes happen and this one is a significant one.... But I think in many ways what matters most is how we respond.”