Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
CESANA, Italy (AP) -- He had high hopes of walking into the Olympic opening ceremony with his teammates, spending another week in the athletes' village and then bringing a medal home to his family.
And now, that's all gone for Zach Lund.
Lund, the top slider on the U.S. skeleton team, was banned from the Turin Olympics on Friday for taking a common hair-restoration pill with an ingredient that can be used to mask steroids.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport -- while saying it believes Lund did not cheat -- ruled he should serve a one-year suspension anyhow, retroactive to Nov. 10 and enforced immediately. He will spend a couple nights in a Turin hotel, then head home early next week.
"The last thing I ever wanted was to be considered a cheater," Lund said. "The one thing I prided myself on was carrying myself with the utmost honesty and dignity. To be in this category, to be a cheater, kills me and hurts more than losing the chance to be in the Olympics. My reputation is on the line here, and that hurts more than anything."
He did not march with the U.S. team at the Olympic opening ceremony on Friday night. Lund will be replaced on the Olympic roster by Chris Soule, who came in seventh at the Salt Lake City Olympics.
Lund, 26, has always listed whichever hair-restoration drug he's taking on his medical forms, and insists that's proof he wasn't hiding anything. But he said he didn't check the forms in 2005 when finasteride, an ingredient in his hair medication that he has since thrown away, was added to the banned list.
"Unfortunately, in 2005, he made a mistake," CAS wrote.
Lund told CAS he was misled by the Web site of the governing body of his sport, which lists finasteride both as a "prohibited substance" and a "specified substance."
"It was very confusing," said Lund's attorney, Howard Jacobs. "The international federation shouldn't be able to put things on their Web site that are misleading to athletes and leave them there without any consequences."
Last month, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency decided Lund deserved only a public warning and should forfeit his second-place finish from the season's opening World Cup event in Calgary, where he tested positive in November.
But the World Anti-Doping Agency wanted a tougher sanction and appealed to CAS for a two-year ban. Lund will be able to compete again on Nov. 9, but will not have to forfeit any other results from this season aside from Calgary.
"Mr. Lund was not well served by the anti-doping organizations," CAS wrote. "The Panel concluded that Mr. Lund bears no significant fault or negligence."
WADA director general David Howman said the organization was "comfortable" with the one-year ban.
"CAS functioned in the way we have come to expect of them," Howman said. "Once the offense is established, then the onus goes on the athlete to convince the panel that there was no fault or no significant fault. The panel found no significant fault."
Skeleton racers slide headfirst on a thin sled down the same track used for bobsled and luge, exceeding 70 mph. Lund, who was the World Cup leader at one point this season, was the Americans' best gold-medal chance.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation now finds itself dealing with more drama.
Last year's World Cup champion Noelle Pikus-Pace missed the first half of this season after breaking her leg in Calgary when an out-of-control U.S. bobsled smashed into her.
On Dec. 31, coach Tim Nardiello was suspended over sexual harassment allegations; he was later reinstated but ultimately fired after ignoring orders to stay away from the American team during its final Olympic preparations in Switzerland last week.
Finasteride has been banned list since 2005. Two athletes, Argentine tennis player Mariano Hood and German soccer player Nemanja Vucicevic, were banned for taking the same drug last year.
"The current anti-doping rules lack any notion of common sense. ... He had a well-documented reason for the positive test," Jacobs said. "It had nothing to do with performance enhancement."
------
AP Sports Writer Larry Lage in Turin, Italy contributed to this story.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
