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Dr. Kim Mulvihill ReportingIn an interview with Sports Illustrated late today, Tour de France winner Floyd Landis repeatedly denied that he doped. In fact, the cyclist suggested other reasons for why he tested positive for testosterone.
Landis told Sports Illustrated that medication he takes for two medical conditions could be responsible for the high testosterone levels. Not everyone is so certain.
Floyd Landis' Tour de France victory seemed incredible. The 30-year old American was suffering from a degenerative hip condition that was so painful, it required cortisone shots.
Arlene: "I knew that he was taking a pain medication. He had to. Anyone knew the man couldn't function without pain."
The question is if the man functioned without synthetic testosterone.
Dr. Marc Safran: "It would really be a shame if he did test positive and it was found that it was a performance that was aided by drugs."
Dr. Marc Safran heads up the sport medicine clinic at UCSF. He says the Tour de France is one of the most grueling sporting events that anyone can compete in. So grueling, Landis with his bad hip requested and got permission from race officials to get corticosteroid shots. Today the cyclist suggested those shots may have had an effect on his testosterone test.
Safran doesn't think so.
Dr. Marc Safran: "I don't really think an intra-articular injection of a corticosteroid would have much of an effect on testosterone levels. I wouldn't expect it to do so."
Landis also told Sports Illustrated he had a thyroid condition for the last year and was taking small amounts of thyroid hormone. But experts say it's unlikely these medications can play any role in boosting testosterone.
Safran says while judgment should be withheld when it comes to Landis, he knows the pressure to win can be intense.
Dr. Marc Safran: "There is so much emphasis and glory associated with winning, that people are willing to sacrifice what they need to take that chance."
In the United States, when a test shows elevated testosterone levels in a sample, typically a second test is done immediately. This test, called a CIR, can distinguish between naturally occurring testosterone and synthetic testosterone. We don't know if that test was done in this case.
We do know two urine samples called A & B were taken after stage 17, where Landis began his dramatic comeback. Sample "A" showed an unusually high level of testosterone. His team then suspended Landis, pending the results of the backup sample "B".
It is possible for some people to have unusually high levels of testosterone on their own, but in that case, you would expect them to have high levels of testerone on every test, and they would know they test high.
