The Andreea Răducan Case

Andreea Răducan is a retired Romanian gymnast, one of the best Romania had. Unfortunately her career was shorter than it should have been. She had a four-year career as a senior.

Over her four-year senior career, she won Olympic or World Championships medals on every event except the uneven bars and earned three individual World Championships titles, on the floor exercise in 1999 and 2001 and the balance beam in 2001. source

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Unfortunately her name is tied to a very ugly scandal forever. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics she won the all-around title, but she could not keep the medal because she was disqualified shortly after the competition concluded. Why? Because she had failed doping controls, testing positive for pseudoephedrine, which is a banned substance. I remember the case, saw it live and also remember how shocked everyone was. It was unheard for a gymnast to fail the doping test, especially for a young, underage one like her. She was 17 back then.

Pseudoephedrine is a sympathomimetic drug, a cold medicine. This case is just like the one I wrote about yesterday. They said the pill had no effect on her performance, but still, it's a banned substance and she was stripped of her medal and left with a huge disappointment and heartache that will remain in her memory for the rest of her life.

The case was brought to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in fall 2000, she was exonerated of any personal wrongdoing by both by the Romanian Olympic Committee and the International Gymnastics Federation, but the decision of stripping her of the gold still wasn't changed. She wasn't suspended or banned from competing like in other doping cases, she could compete without any problem. In other words, she wasn't guilty but... Yes, but, a big but that will be never explained or understood.

I need to tell you how these gymnasts life is like in order for you to understand what's happened. These girls basically are growing up at the gymnastic training center. They leave home at the young age of 6 - 7 and are raised by trainers and other personnel working at the center. They have very strict rules and schedule, there's no high life there. They need to follow a strict diet and a tight training schedule, plus they have classes between training sessions.

Imagine a young girl like her, at the age of 17, training for the Olympics all her life. There was no way she knew what she was given. The doctor should have known better. I don't know if it was negligence or he didn't know, I have no idea but he has no excuse anyway. He was responsible for the team's health and his act costed a gold medal and a big scandal, not to mention the pain he caused to Andreea, pain that will never go away.

The doctor was was expelled from the Games and suspended through the 2002 Winter Olympics at Salt Lake City and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

Răducan's test samples from the team and vault event finals were clean; she was therefore allowed to keep the medals she won in these competitions. source

This indicates that it wasn't doping. If an athlete is doping, his or her blood test won't be different from a day to another. In some cases the body needs month to eliminate certain substances. One of such substance is the famous meldonium, that made a lot of casualties among famous athletes.

I felt sorry for her, she did not deserve that's happened but nothing could be done. I just wish rules would be more clear.