What’s the story?
Rio Olympics 4x400 meter relay gold medalist Gil Roberts can finally breathe a sigh of relief as he was cleared of all doping charges. He was charged with violation of doping laws, following a recent test, taken by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
Roberts’s urine sample had traces of banned substance Probenecid and following his dazed looks at the results, investigation on the matter revealed that the ace runner actually ingested the substance from kissing his girlfriend Alex Salazar who had taken a medicine for a sinus infection.
"Whenever they were together, they kissed frequently and passionately," a USADA report released by TOI said.
"Roberts had dated Ms Salazar for two years and surely had kissed her before without being charged with a doping violation," the report said.
"Thus, for Roberts, it must have been like lightning out of a clear blue sky for him to learn that by kissing his girlfriend this time that he was exposing himself to a prohibited substance."
In case you didn’t know…
Alex Salazar and her family had reportedly visited the rural parts of India around the time of the doping incident and subsequently procured the medicine for a sinus problem.
Following this, Salazar visited Roberts and the two spent time together whilst Alex was still taking the medication.
The heart of the matter
India features in this story since the banned substance continues to be used in various parts of the country without much fuss. Anti-drug laws are known to come down heavy on such banned substances and its sellers in the market, but no such action appears to have been taken in India.
It has been acknowledged that incidents such as Roberts’s case are rare.
What’s next?
It is commendable that a bizarre situation such as this has been handled so professionally by the USADA without creating much fuss. A wrongful accusation on such a celebrated athlete could have ended up being catastrophic for Gil Roberts’ career.
Author’s take
Well, all’s well that ends well. Now that the situation has been cleared, we can all have a good laugh about the freak scenario and athletes around the world can think twice before asking for a good luck kiss from their spouses.
