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Shelley Osterloh Reporting America's top slider tested positive for a banned drug; that's the latest trouble for the US skeleton team. The team's coach is embroiled in charges of sexual harassment, and that investigation is continuing. And the star female slider, Noelle Pikus Pace, may not be able to win back her spot on the team after being injured when she was hit by a runaway bobsled.
Zach Lund is a ranked number one in the world in Skeleton right now. The native Salt Laker is in Germany for a World Cup, but after training yesterday he was told he could not compete because of a positive drug test for a banned substance.
It is not a performance enhancing drug, but reportedly a drug that some have used to mask the use of steroids. Lund says he has taken the drug, which is a generic form of the popular drug propecia, to reduce hair loss.
Zach Lund says six years ago he saw he was losing his hair and got a prescription for the drug. He says he checked to make sure it was legal to take, but didn't know it was added to a banned list just last year.
Zach Lund: "After five years of testing, Ieventually became very complacent that it was legal. And I just didn't check this year. I had a lot going on, going to the games, and I just didn't check this year."
Lund says he has never taken any performance enhancing drugs and every time he has a drug test declares that he is taking this medication.
Zach Lund: "I've been tested eight times, in the year of 2005, I was tested eight times and in all those tests I declared. And not once was I warned that I was taking something illegal. No one ever said anything to me until I tested positive.
"I can't explain what I'm going through. It's the hardest thing I've ever gone through in my life besides losing my mom to skin cancer. And the hardest part about it is before she passed away she made me promise that I would always follow my dreams and always go after what I wanted in life. And my Olympic dream is something I've always wanted.
"She also made me promise that i would live my life very truthfully and virtuously, and I've always tried to do that. And now to have people coming after me and calling me a cheater and everything and attacking my very being, is really almost impossible to explain what I'm going through."
Lund is head back to Salt Lake soon. He says he thinks he has a good case and can prove, through blood tests, that he has not taken any steroids and that it was an honest mistake. But the rules are very strict, and if he is suspended, he will miss his chance at the Olympics.
