Magness's last competition in the IAAF website was in February 2011.
From athletic integrity website:
"Emails reveal that Salazar inquired about using an intravenous infusion of L-carnitine on Ritzenhein. However, after consultation with Dr. Brown, it was agreed to perform the infusion of Steve Magness, an Assistant Coach, before the method was used on NOP athletes. He administered a one litre (1,000mL) bag containing L-carnitine and dextrose to Magness on 28 November 2011.
The AAA and CAS Decision reveal that Salazar and Dr. Brown hypothesised that this experiment would reveal whether the process worked. Emails reveal their belief that no rules would be broken since Magness wasn’t a registered athlete. In fact, Magness was still competing and could therefore be sanctioned with an ADRV.
He hasn’t yet been sanctioned, hence WADA’s complaint. But his status as a registered athlete meant that Salazar and Dr. Brown were sanctioned for administering a prohibited method to him. Had he not come forward with information to USADA, Salazar and Dr. Brown might not have been sanctioned and might still be abusing athletes.
The CAS Decision reveals why the process Magness underwent rang alarm bells. It blurs – or perhaps obliterates – the line between treatment and doping. Magness sat with a needle in his arm for over four hours (250 minutes) whilst a 1,000mL solution containing L-carnitine was infused into him.
There is no doubt that performing this procedure on an athlete was prohibited on 28 November 2011. All infusions were prohibited until 1 January 2012, and then only infusions of 50 mL in under six hours were permitted. In terms of anti-doping rules, L-carnitine is irrelevant. The procedure would have been prohibited if Magness had been administered water.
Salazar and Dr. Brown had planned to use the same procedure on NOP athletes. The CAS Decision reveals that Dr. Brown told Ritzenhein in a 1 December 2012 email that the procedure would take four to five hours. This either indicates that Dr. Brown intended to administer the same prohibited infusion to Ritzenhein, or that he didn’t yet know the volume administered to Magness was prohibited.
Click to open…Salazar emailed Dr. Noel Pollock of UK Athletics a day later asking him about the maximum infusion permissible under the rules, after Ritzenhein raised concerns. On 3 December, he asked USADA whether he could perform infusions on NOP athletes and on 6 December, he was again advised of the 50ml limit (see right), which he stuck to. As such, the CAS found that it was more likely that on 1 December, Dr. Brown didn’t know that the volume of the infusion he had administered to Magness and had intended to give to Ritzenhein was prohibited.
USADA attempted to charge Salazar and Brown with attempted administration of over the limit L-carnitine infusions to five athletes: Dathan Ritzenhein; Alvina Begay; Dawn Grunnagle; Galen Rupp; and Lindsay Horn. As previously mentioned, the CAS Decision reveals that USADA failed to establish this. Following the ‘experiment’ concerning an over the limit L-carnitine infusion administered to Magness, all L-carnitine infusions administered to NOP athletes were within permissible limits.
Despite email records indicating that permitted 45ml infusions were used on NOP athletes, Dr. Brown later amended the medical records of Ritzenhein, Rupp, and Grunnagle to indicate that 40ml was infused, after being informed about USADA’s investigation. This appears to be an attempt to protect himself and Salazar.
The results of the Magness experiment were that the increase in VO2max was within the range associated with blood doping. Salazar was so excited about this that he emailed Lance Armstrong.
This was before Armstrong had confessed to doping throughout his career, but during USADA’s investigation into the cyclist. Why was Salazar telling a suspected doper about new, permitted, performance enhancing substances? Such advisory exchanges are often two way.
Click to open…On 5 January 2012, Salazar instructed all five NOP athletes that underwent permitted infusions to state that they hadn’t had any prohibited infusions. The CAS Decision reveals that this was because he believed that in order to be permitted, an infusion volume had to be less than 50mL and delivered via syringe and not a bag.
He believed that the way they had received L-carnitine was classified as an injection and not a prohibited infusion (see right), and therefore the NOP athletes would be answering truthfully. However, it isn’t hard to see how this caused concern amongst the five athletes involved.
Farah denied receiving L-Carnitine injections when initially questioned by USADA…It appears that this instruction was also passed to another athlete that Salazar coached. Mo Farah was allegedly given four injections over two hours at the Tower Hotel in London ahead of the 2014 London Marathon. He initially denied receiving the injections in a four hour interview, but immediately returned to admit receiving them after meeting Barry Fudge, former Head of Endurance at UK Athletics, outside."
