I was surprised to see that Fernando Tatis was busted for clostebol by mlb and somewhat publicly dressed down by the team’s GM. Most people will be confused by this bust as clostebol is a pretty weak anabolic. Dee Gordon was busted for it in 2016 and tried the ooops 🤷♂️ defense to the tune of an 80 game suspension. Tatis tried a slightly more inventive but ultimately disastrous approach claiming that he intended to take clobestasol for ringworm, but ultimately took clostebol ‘on accident.’ Unlike Lance, he didn’t even bother to show up with a backdated Rx as this would have led to a rather uncomfortable situation for the hapless veterinarian/dr/nurse who actually wrote the script. There was significant pushback on this insulting narrative.
Also, DeAndre Hopkins was busted for a obfuscatingly-classified selective androgen receptor modulator ostarine and tried the old ‘there was only 0.1% in my body’ defense unsuccessfully. SARMs have the potential to treat issues like hypogonadism, 🤔. Maybe he could try the old LaShawn Merritt excuse? They have also been discussed here in regards to Ashley Paulson and her somewhat checkered past.
In any event, the media is getting more sophisticated in their understanding of the hows and whys of doping and that may be positive for those of us who care about clean sport. I’ve noticed some patterns associated with the use of drugs that I think can be explained by the following:
1) Dopers usually aren’t on just one thing.
2) Some of their surprise may not be feigned and perhaps can be explained by the fact that they got busted for something they didn’t understand or know that they were ingesting (secret sauce).
3) Ingredients in the secret sauce may be ingested together but not detected together. From the outside, some of the busts may not make sense at first, but in the context of a more comprehensive doping program, it is easy to understand why the athlete would be taking the detected drug.