#127: A sexually-transmitted doping positive
Your guest newsletter
issue #127: March 5, 2025
All-sporters, while I’m out this month Tim Heming has agreed to write a couple of guest newsletters for you all. Today, he’s tackling the off-season doping news and a few other things.
A big thanks to Tim for bringing the British sensibilities to our American audience and for only making one spelling error. And to all of you for all the well wishes during my mat leave.
Now, handing over the reins to Tim…
- Kelly
While Kelly is nurturing the next generation of triathletes/world leaders (and we need both), I’ve promised to step in for a couple of Triathlonishes. It won’t be as good (or opinionated), but please don't unsubscribe. She will be back, and I can’t face her return being greeted by the decimation of the one thing she values alongside humanity: her subscriber base.
Ligandrol is not so droll
Triathlon went mainstream again last week, but not in the way it wanted.
The explanation for Swiss triathlete Imogen Simmonds’ positive drug test feels equally plausible as it does absurd.
Simmonds is one of the best middle distance athletes in the world, and after a couple of years of injury setbacks she delivered a solid 2024 and earned a much-valued T100 contract for 2025.
Now that’s in jeopardy.
The headline that the metabolite of Ligandrol, a selective androgen receptor modulator (SARM), got into Simmonds’ system through intimate relations with her partner, who — unbeknownst to her was taking PEDs while trying to improve his physique — is, as so often in similar cases and as social media proves, easy to scoff at.
Simmonds’ Instagram post, stating it was “at picogram levels (a quantity that is equivalent to a dash of salt in an Olympic-size swimming pool) and would have never provided [me] with any performance-enhancing benefit,” gives more context. The amount is yet to be confirmed by the International Testing Agency (ITA), but is unlikely to be wrong given how easily it can be disproved.
[Kelly note: Why did this come out before the ITA was ready to announce a penalty or to confirm the investigation? Because, evidently, a former member of Simmonds’ team, who she had parted ways with, leaked news of the test result to The Triathlon Hour. Which is a pretty bitter thing to do either way…]
What happens now? Well, we wait for the process to play out (and it’s unclear how long that will take) while Simmonds waits on the sidelines.
An interesting angle is that there is precedent for trace doses of Ligandrol transferred through intimate contact.
Canada’s Briane Harris, a four-time national curling champion, and Laurence Vincent Lapointe, an 11-time world champion canoeist, have both been through similar ordeals before being found to have no fault.
The Harris case is particularly timely, because in recent days there have been reports of her filing a complaint with WADA against the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, having been forced to sit out for nearly a year due to a provisional suspension, only to have it overturned when the the Court of Arbitration for Sport found she bore no negligence.
The obvious question is whether that precedent is a help or a hindrance to Simmonds’ cause.
Ostensibly, this sounds like some good news for Simmonds, and Triathlete’s report of her suspension suggests that her legal camp was immediately onto it. When Triathlete asked French researcher and doping expert Pascal Kintz, eminent in this field, for comment, he said he couldn’t because he was already “involved” with the case. In Simmonds’ post, she stated: “We have hired the best expert in the world to assist us with proving my case.”
But precedent works both ways.
The charitable will say it shows how easy it is for contamination to happen, and Simmonds should be acquitted in the manner of the Canadians, but in a more timely manner (Vincent-Lapointe was also provisionally banned for almost a year too).
On the other hand, the cynical will say that the athlete and her team has cherry-picked the best excuse to get them off, and hired the man who knows how to do it.
When the case runs its course more evidence may come to light. But a final comment: Where does the athlete’s responsibility begin and end? If we accept and understand that intimate relations can mean banned substances are passed on, isn’t the professional still responsible? If not, how many similar cases have to happen before they are?
Another less consequential DQ…
Ultra runner and defending champion, Rajpaul Pannu, was disqualified for wearing illegal shoes at the USATF 100 Mile Championships. Opting for Hoka Skyward X rather than his usual Hoka Rocket X2, he fell foul of the 40mm stack height rule. Pannu said he didn’t know and is “choosing to take the high road in hopes of shedding light on how all championship events could be better sanctioned.” You can read his full explanation here.
Whatever you think about Pannu, why do brands insist on making shoes that breach the rules? I’ve heard some unconvincing arguments that they’re great for recovery when training. I think it’s more of a defiant middle finger up at the lawmakers, but it also makes it ungovernable at amateur level.
The -ish
And the things worth knowing about this week around our sports.
A reminder that Ironman has updated its competition rules for 2025. The headlines being that 1. the time penalty is reduced for drafting and 2. you should check how many bottles you have stacked up in your cockpit. (IRONMAN)
Valencia looks to have replaced Ibiza as the Spanish stop off on the T100 World Tour. Scheduled for Sept. 20-21, it will be run in conjunction with the sprint distance World Cup and takes the T100 pro racing schedule to nine events. While there are shorter distance options for amateurs, Valencia joins San Francisco (which hosts Escape from Alcatraz) as the only other event where there isn’t a T100 age-group race. (World Triathlon)
Ironman World Championship runner-up and Pro Series winner Kat Matthews is no longer being coached by Björn Geesmann. Great Britain’s double Giro d’Italia stage winner Alex Dowsett is taking over the reins for her cycling.
Former marathon world record-holder Paula Radcliffe, 51, ran her first marathon in 10 years in Tokyo last weekend, finishing in 2:57:26 and also spoke about training while being perimenopausal. (BBC)
TriMe, the Siri Lindley story is out as a movie. Sport, wild horses, cancer recovery, Tony Robbins and a wonderful uplifting yarn. What’s not to love. Go watch the trailer. [Kelly note: I was interviewed for some background triathlon history for this doc two years ago, and so I can say the production team put a lot of work into it!] (TriMe)
An indoor World Cup is happening in Lievin in two weeks and newly crowned world champion, Cassandre Beaugrand is the star draw. If you’ve not watched this style of indoor triathlon before, it’s worth a peek. And, as we've seen already this year, fireworks often happen in Lievin. (BBC/World Triathlon)
2023 Ironman world champion Sam Laidlow says he still isn’t feeling right after struggling when trying to defend his title last year in Hawaii. Underlining the fragility of health in endurance sport, Ireland’s James Walton talks about his baffling Myalgic Encephalomyelitis M.E diagnosis (YouTube/Tri247)
We lost a great friend and triathlete, Sam Perkins, to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS/MND) last month. Four-time Ironman champion Chrissie Wellington, who pushed Sam in three marathons when his body had packed up, wrote this moving tribute. Among the responses I noticed one of the replies was from Robert Blais, father of the late Ironman athlete Jon Blais, who left us in 2007 to the same disease. It simply read: FREEDOM!!!!! (Chrissie Wellington/Wikipedia)
One last thing
This would be why I (Kelly) stay away from riding my bike on too much dirt. Click on the video.
