Doping in sports

[Firestarter]

A blood clot in his right shoulder has taken San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama, who many expected to become the best NBA player before the end of the decade, out of play for the rest of the 2024-2025 season.
Normally deep vein thrombosis doesn’t happen to younger people who exercise regularly. It is also rare to happen in shoulders, as these clots are more common in the legs.
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Ernest "Randy" Mims is a longtime friend and business manager of LeBron James. David Alexander was LeBron’s personal trainer.
Alexander and Mims bought performance-enhancing drugs from Acevedo. Mims (like Alexander) claimed that he didn’t buy the steroid testosterone for his friend LeBron but for himself.

Other NBA players that suffered from deep vein thrombosis include Chris Bosh (who won 2 NBA championships with LeBron in Miami), Brandon Ingram and Ausar Thompson.
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In March 2011, Serena suffered from a pulmonary embolism and hematoma.
Embolisms and DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) are often associated with sedentary lifestyles, which certainly didn’t apply to Serena. Anabolic steroid can cause these diseases.

In 2011, Serena Williams was hospitalised as a result of blood clots in her lungs. In 2018, Williams suffered another pulmonary embolism that required multiple surgeries: https://archive.is/5CWfp


Reportedly the 2.21 m tall Wembanyama increased his bodyweight with an impressive 11 kg within his first year in the NBA (from 95 kg, 210 lbs to 106 kg, 235 pounds).

See Victor Wembanyama’s 1-year physical transformation…

https://www.msn.com/en-in/sports/footba ... r-BB1oFaMP

That’s even more than Giannis Antetokounmpo, whose weight increased from 196 pounds when he was drafted in 2013, to 222 pounds in the 2015-16 season: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/101 ... s-by-spurs


Steroid use increases the risk of blood clots in blood vessels, which can lead to a heart attack or stroke: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articl ... rt-attacks

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Instead of being banned, Sinner since he was informed of his positive test in April, withdrew from the quarter-finals of the Madrid Open citing a hip injury, and didn’t compete again for 27 days until his first round match at the French Open.

After the “anti” doping agency WADA appealed the decision to not ban Jannik Sinner at all, while accepting Sinner’s lame excuse, the doping violation was settled for a “3 month” ban (from 9 February to 4 May), timed so that Sinner won’t miss any Grand Slam tournament (Sinner won the US Open and Australian Open, after his positive doping test).

Maybe the most surprising here is that this settlement was criticised more than the original non-suspension.
Nick Kyrgios responded with “Sad day for tennis. Fairness in tennis does not exist”, while Tim Henman criticised the ban as “too convenient”.
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In August, tennis star Iga Swiatek – then ranked WTA number one, currently no. 2 - tested positive for the banned heart medication trimetazidine (TMZ) in an out-of-competition test and was secretly banned for a month.

I haven’t even heard criticism on Iga Swiatek’s similarly settling her positive doping test: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/ ... ement-wada


Goran Ivanisevic, Novak Djokovic’s coach in 2019–2024, spoke in defence of Sinner:

With Cilic, I’ve had to deal with WADA and such people, a lot of people that I didn’t like, that just want to destroy someone’s life. I hope that the outcome is positive for Sinner.

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Ivanisevic referred to Marin Cilic, who he coached from 2013 to 2016, who was likewise banned for 4 months in 2013 after testing positive for nikethamide and coming up with some lame excuse.
Cilic went on to win the 2014 US Open: https://archive.is/uiRlq

[Firestarter]

Ernest "Randy" Mims is a longtime friend and business manager of LeBron James. David Alexander was LeBron’s personal trainer.
Alexander and Mims bought performance-enhancing drugs from Acevedo. Mims (like Alexander) claimed that he didn’t buy the steroid testosterone for his friend LeBron but for himself.

Other NBA players that suffered from deep vein thrombosis include Chris Bosh (who won 2 NBA championships with LeBron in Miami), Brandon Ingram and Ausar Thompson.

In 2024, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Tristan Thompson was suspended for 25 games after testing positive for the muscle building performance-enhancing drugs ibutamoren (a growth hormone) and LGD-4033 (a SARM).
While Thompson is best known as the cheating ex of Khloe Kardashian, he also played with LeBron James in the Cavaliers in 2014-2018 and again in 2023 for the Lakers: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/393 ... a-25-games


The Bucks’ Bobby Portis Jr was also suspended for 25 games for doping in February 2025, after testing positive for the banned painkiller Tramadol: https://www.bbc.com/sport/basketball/ar ... knd6g2pdeo

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A blood clot in his right shoulder has taken San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama, who many expected to become the best NBA player before the end of the decade, out of play for the rest of the 2024-2025 season.

The Milwaukee Bucks’ star Damian Lillard was also forced to stop playing in March 2025 with deep vein thrombosis in his right calf.
He quickly returned, already playing in the first round of the playoffs in which he tore his left achilles tendon on 28 April, which at 34 years old could end his career (strangely Tyrese Haliburton and Jayson Tatum also tore their Achilles during the playoffs): https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nba/d ... s-playoffs

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That’s even more than Giannis Antetokounmpo, whose weight increased from 196 pounds when he was drafted in 2013, to 222 pounds in the 2015-16 season

The biggest star on the Bucks team is Giannis Antetokounmpo whose transformation from skinny, very tall teenager into the Greek freak many suspect wasn’t possible without juicing (these kind of transformations are quite common in the NBA).


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Apparently NBA fans aren’t very concerned with all of the doping used by their heroes, but the latest Oklahoma City Thunder championship has become controversial for many fans, with its MVP star, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, criticised as a “free throw merchant” for his foul baiting tactics.
Of course Shai isn’t really to blame for playing in a way that gets him the easy to score free throws to win games (and titles), but THE problem is the officiating.

Especially troubling are the apparent double standards where the newly promoted “face of the league” SGA gets free throws for the slightest of touch, often even when Shai initiates it, but when the Thunder play “physical” defence, notably against the widely considered best NBA player Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic, the player on the other team never seems to get the same cheap free throws.

The most hated referee in the NBA, Scott Foster, has been singled out by many NBA fans as the main culprit, as biased in whistling for certain teams and players, and against others.
One of the best NBA players for the last 10+ years, Steph Curry, sometimes looks he’s playing in a rugby match, but never gets the same amount of free throws as Shai.
Scott Foster was one of the referees in game 6 of the 2016 NBA finals in which Steph Curry was fouled out, and the Warriors lost.

Warriors’ star Steph Curry gets ejected in game 6 for 6 fouls, 4 of these calls were wrong, and 2 of these involve LeBron…

viewtopic.php?p=85913#p85913

As a referee in this year’s playoffs, Foster officiated no less than 5 Thunder games, all 5 won by the Thunder, including game 4 of the finals in which he gave the Pacers’ Obi Toppin an unjustified flagrant foul.
https://youtu.be/wmFCwweYy_E

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Tim Donaghy is a former NBA referee that served 15 months in prison after an FBI investigation into his association with a gambling syndicate; the allegations include betting on games he officiated. Donaghy argued that 2 of the 3 referees, including Dick Bavetta, fixed the game in favour of the Lakers.

viewtopic.php?p=85903#p85903

Scott Foster was a close friend of Tim Donaghy, with Foster the godfather of Donaghy’s daughter, and Donaghy the godfather of Foster’s son.
In 2006-2007, in the period Donaghy was betting on NBA games, Foster and Donaghy exchanged 134 phone calls often before and after games Donaghy was officiating: https://web.archive.org/web/20240605131 ... xtender-n/


Chris Paul (who mentored Shai Gilgeous-Alexander when he played for the Thunder) has complained heavily about referee Foster.
Of the 20 Chris Paul playoff games with Scott Foster as a referee, Paul won only 3 (even though his team was favourite in 15 of those 20 games), while of Paul’s total of other playoff games his teams won 70 and lost 54 (when you exclude the Foster officiated games).

This can’t be a “coincidence”: https://archive.is/I695R

[Firestarter]

There has not been a positive dope test in the Tour de France in almost 10 years.
The currently best cyclist in the world, Tadej Pogacar, is faster than Lance Armstrong in his prime, and doesn’t limit his dominance to only the most important race in the year. Pogacar’s UAE (yes, the UAE again…) team leaders Mauro Gianetti and Joxean Fernández Matxin were previously working for the Saunier Duval team, which had several positive doping cases, including of Iban Mayo, Leonardo Piepoli and Riccardo Riccò.

A former professional cyclist who rode in a top team has “noticed that doping continued", including EPO which is still popular in microdosing.
The banned performance enhancing drug Aicar, that appeared in the 2010s, plays a major role today.

Doping expert Oliver Catlin has explained why the measures of the “anti”-doping institution against Aicar are almost ineffective. Firstly because the detection window for the substance is very short, and also as of the 166 Aicar-like drugs only 4 (!) appear on the WADA banned list.

If I were an athlete, would I take Aicar knowing it's on the prohibited list? Or would I rather take Aicar's relatives who are not on the prohibited list?

https://www.sportschau.de/doping/aicar- ... h-100.html
(https://archive.is/oaKUx)


Professional cycling still includes convicted doping offenders or those investigated, in 14 of the 18 World Tour teams.

An investigation by Austrian and German police into a blood-doping ring being run from a clinic in Erfurt, Operation Aderlass, in 2019 arrested doctor Mark Schmidt, who had a freezer filled with 40 blood bags.
Danilo Hondo testified that he paid Schmidt €25,000 for blood doping in 2012.
In January 2021, Schmidt was sentenced to almost 5 years in jail.

Prosecutors investigated "up to 20" people who were involved with Mark Schmidt, like David Rozman, that for some reason weren’t charged, mostly in pro cycling.
David Rozman chatted with Schmidt in 2012 and 2013. Rozman was a masseur that moved from a Slovenian club team to the Slovenian national team, to the Milram pro team in Germany.
Rozman continued his career for “the famous” Team Sky.

On 9 June 2012, a month before Team Sky would dominate the Tour de France, Rozman sent a message to Schmidt:

Do you still have any of the stuff that Milram used during the races? If so, can you bring it for the boys?

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Rozman connected his friend Schmidt to a drug dealer — with codename ‘Maestro Balthazar’ — who would supply banned substances like Aicar and TB500.
Rozman was also funding another accomplice to buy blood doping equipment from companies in Vienna and Ljubljana.

Rozman is currently the head carer at Team Ineos Grenadiers, the new name for Team Sky. He was sent home from the Tour de France, after the reports on his connection to Schmidt: https://www.independent.ie/sport/other- ... 64315.html
(https://archive.is/Z9Nen)


In the 2010s, Team Sky dominated the Tour de France, with Bradley Wiggins winning in 2012, followed by Chris Froome (2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017), Geraint Thomas (2018) and Egan Bernal (2019).

The list of athletes associated with Mark Schmidt included decorated sprinter Alessandro Petachi.
The managing director of the Bahrain–Mérida team, Milan Erzen, asked Schmidt for help setting up blood doping for his team. Erzen still runs a top-level cycling team. Milram was disbanded after 2010.

The 2016 Fancy Bears Russian hack showed that Team Sky was using therapeutic use exemptions (TUE) to be allowed to give its riders otherwise prohibited asthma-fighting corticosteroids.
Months later British Cycling announced an investigation into an incident before the 2011 Tour in which a courier hand-delivered Wiggins a package with some sort of mysterious medical something in a jiffy bag.

In 2023, Richard Freeman was banned for 4 years for violating the doping rules as team doctor for Team Sky: https://defector.com/an-anatomy-of-the- ... om-buzzing
(https://archive.is/l8Sow)

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In August, tennis star Iga Swiatek – then ranked WTA number one, currently no. 2 - tested positive for the banned heart medication trimetazidine (TMZ) in an out-of-competition test and was secretly banned for a month.

As Swiatek didn’t perform well since her positive doping test, her Wimbledon title came as a surprise.
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After the “anti” doping agency WADA appealed the decision to not ban Jannik Sinner at all, while accepting Sinner’s lame excuse, the doping violation was settled for a “3 month” ban (from 9 February to 4 May), timed so that Sinner won’t miss any Grand Slam tournament (Sinner won the US Open and Australian Open, after his positive doping test).

Sinner’s Wimbledon win was less surprising as he has outperformed his competition since his positive doping test to remain world no. 1 despite his 3 month ban.
It was quite a surprise that Sinner rehired his fitness coach Umberto Ferrara who had been fired after he had backed up Sinner’s lame excuse: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/ ... ion-tennis