Gold Medallist Fails Drug Test After Kiss With Girlfriend

Rio Olympics gold medallist Gil Roberts has been cleared of all doping charges after it was found that the banned substance in his sample came from his girlfriend’s sinus medication.

Further investigation on the matter revealed that the runner actually ingested the substance from kissing his girlfriend, Alex Salazar, who had taken a medicine for a sinus infection that she picked up on a family trip in India.

The antibiotic labelled “Moxylong” contained 500mg of Probenecid, which was enough to leave a trace in Robert’s urine sample after they spent the day together.

(PHOTO: James Lang—USA TODAY Sport)

Here are a few paragraphs of the report released by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

"On March 24, 2017, the date of the drug test, Ms. Salazar arrived at Roberts' apartment near noon they kissed and "chilled out." Around 1:00 or 1:30 pm, she went into the kitchen to take her medicine. She did not tell Roberts what she was doing and he did not see her take the medicine. She opened the capsule, poured the contents into her mouth, then washed it down with water. Roberts could not count the number of times they kissed between 1:00 pm and the doping control officer's arrival."

"When Roberts learned he tested positive for probenecid, Salazar said she Googled moxylong and learned the capsule contained 500 mg of amoxicillin, and another 500 mg of probenecid. Luckily, she still had one capsule left and when the Banned Substances Control Group tested the drug, it found .442 grams of material that tested positive for probenecid."

Dr. Pascal Kintz, a drug testing expert at the hearing, argued that Roberts’ very low concentration of Probenecid wasn't enough to work as a masking agent, and was "more than likely" transmitted by some passionate kissing.

And this wasn’t the first time an incident like this has occurred. Last year, Canadian pole vaulter Shawn Barber was cleared of his positive results after he claimed the cocaine found in his system was the result of kissing a person he met in a Craigslist "casual encounter" who had been using the drug in their hotel bathroom.

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