In a rare case, the Court of Arbitration for Sports cleared a Polish canoeist of doping charges and permitted her participation in the Olympic Games currently underway in Paris, the head of Poland’s anti-doping agency told the state news agency PAP.
Tests found the athlete, Dorota Borowska, had clostebol in her system. She was subsequently disqualified from the Olympics in mid-July.
Clostebol can be used as a performance-enhancing drug and was widely used to that effect e.g. in communist East Germany. The substance is currently banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Borowska said that clostebol was a component of an ointment a veterinarian prescribed to her dog after the pet hurt its paws during a walk she took it for while she was at a training camp in Savoy in Italy. The substance made it into her system when she applied it to her dog while rubbing it in with bare hands.
The 28-year-old Borowska appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), even bringing her dog with her to undergo tests for the presence of clostebol, but on Thursday it was announced the appeal was not recognized. After another appeal, the ban was lifted.
Michał Rynkowski of POLADA, Poland’s anti-doping agency, who spoke to PAP on Sunday, stressed that it is a rare case that CAS backtracks on its decisions.
Commenting on the CAS’s decision to lift the ban on competing from Borowska, Grzegorz Kotowicz, the president of the Polish Canoe Federation, said that fortunately canoeing events are held toward the end of the Olympics, which will allow the athlete to compete in both 200-meter singles and 500-meter doubles. Borowska will participate in her first event at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday, August 6.
Kotowicz added that “for her [Borowska] the situation is surely very stressful, but Dorota is a world-class athlete,” adding that he is “certain that this stress will distill into an athletic rage that will allow her to fight for the top position on the podium in Paris.”
Borowska is one of the best-acclaimed canoeists and her numerous successes include a golden medal at the 2023 European Games and this year’s World Championship.
Clostebol can be used as a performance-enhancing drug and was widely used to that effect e.g. in communist East Germany. The substance is currently banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Borowska said that clostebol was a component of an ointment a veterinarian prescribed to her dog after the pet hurt its paws during a walk she took it for while she was at a training camp in Savoy in Italy. The substance made it into her system when she applied it to her dog while rubbing it in with bare hands.
The 28-year-old Borowska appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), even bringing her dog with her to undergo tests for the presence of clostebol, but on Thursday it was announced the appeal was not recognized. After another appeal, the ban was lifted.
Michał Rynkowski of POLADA, Poland’s anti-doping agency, who spoke to PAP on Sunday, stressed that it is a rare case that CAS backtracks on its decisions.
Commenting on the CAS’s decision to lift the ban on competing from Borowska, Grzegorz Kotowicz, the president of the Polish Canoe Federation, said that fortunately canoeing events are held toward the end of the Olympics, which will allow the athlete to compete in both 200-meter singles and 500-meter doubles. Borowska will participate in her first event at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday, August 6.
Kotowicz added that “for her [Borowska] the situation is surely very stressful, but Dorota is a world-class athlete,” adding that he is “certain that this stress will distill into an athletic rage that will allow her to fight for the top position on the podium in Paris.”
Borowska is one of the best-acclaimed canoeists and her numerous successes include a golden medal at the 2023 European Games and this year’s World Championship.
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