We have heard about star players being suspended from a team or from playing in a certain number of games due to suspected illegal drug use, but a university in Canada has suspended an entire program for anti-doping violations.
According to a report on The New York Times, the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, has suspended its football program after an investigation revealed anti-doping violations by nine players. The University has cancelled football for the coming season and has placed the coaches of the team on paid leave as a review is being conducted.
The investigation was sparked by the charging of a University of Waterloo football player, Nathan Zettler, with possession and trafficking of anabolic steroids, human growth hormone and tamoxifen. Tamoxifen is described as a treatment for breast cancer that is also used to counter the undesirable effects of steroids. The university turned to the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport and had the whole team tested.
University of Waterloo director of athletics Bob Copeland said: “I was surprised and disappointed at the same time. It’s really a wake-up call for people across Canada.” He said further that the fact that there was quite a number of positive results after the entire team was subjected to testing meant that the regular drug testing program being implemented in Canada for university athletes was not effective.
Samples were taken from all 62 players at the University of Waterloo as well as players in two other universities. There were no positive results found in the tests conducted in the other schools.
Tags: football drug abuse, football drug test, sports drug abuse, sports drug test
