The ATP’s top-ranked doubles player, Robert Farah, has been restored immediately following an examination that determined his story of tainted meat leading to an anti-doping violation to be genuine. According to the ITF’s findings, which were made public on Monday, the 33-year-old was not at fault for the infraction, which requires that the player’s ineligibility be completely removed.
Following the discovery of boldenone and its metabolite in a urine sample collected outside of competition on October 17, 2019, Farah was charged on January 11 and placed on temporary suspension ten days later. Farah refuted the claim that the boldenone “found in his system came from beef that he ate the night before sample 3143779 was collected, which he says contained residue of boldenone injected into the cow as a growth promoter prior to slaughter.” Farah, along with Juan Sebastian Cabal, won both Wimbledon and the US Open the previous season.
In Farah’s sample, the lab detected boldenone at an estimated quantity of 1.2 ng/mL and its metabolite at an estimated value of 1.8 ng/mL. In Farah’s case, those levels were determined to be exogenous, and as a result, they were recorded as an adverse analytical finding. Otherwise, they are classified as atypical findings.
Consequently, on January 21, a necessary temporary suspension was imposed, and Farah was had to demonstrate that meat contamination “was more likely than not the source” of boldenone in addition to demonstrating that the breach was not deliberate. Among the proof that Farah offered were two earlier urine samples from October that had no traces of illegal chemicals in them. He said that on October 16 and 17, he was in Cali, Colombia, visiting his mother. He also mentioned that he had a home-cooked dinner with his fiancée and a family member.
The chain of custody for the meat that Farah consumed was arguably the most important factor in supporting his innocence. On October 15, his mother gave a sworn testimony regarding her purchase of solomillo (sirloin) at a well-known supermarket chain in her area. Using her customer identification card information, a senior manager of food procurement at the supermarket was able to access a purchase record that listed 1.006 kilogrammes of silomillo beef as one of the goods acquired. Records from the retailer revealed that the meat came from a processing facility that was connected to fifteen livestock ranches in northern Colombia.
Additionally, the Colombian government was included. Boldenone is not only allowed to be used on cattle, according to a senior official in charge of agriculture and rural development, and 59 products containing the steroid are sold commercially. Farmers around the 15 cattle ranches have also been using boldenone to gain more mass and fat on their cattle. A senior official from the Colombian cattle trade and a local cattle farmer who was not affiliated with any of the 15 ranches were among the other sworn statements and reports that provided testimony demonstrating the possibility that the meat purchased at the store was the source of boldenone.
Later, Farah was asked to submit receipts and a comprehensive schedule of all the supplements he used between March and October 2019. The possibility that boldenone was not a contaminant of the supplements was increased by the fact that none of the substances listed contained boldenone or a precursor, and all ten tests performed on him during that time came back negative.
After considering all of the available data, the ITF finally concluded that Farah had neither purposefully consumed boldenone nor been aware that the steak his mother had prepared included the drug. In November 2018, the Colombian Olympic Committee warned its athletes about the possible connection between boldenone and farms in Colombia. However, the ITF “accepted” that Farah does not live in Colombia and travels the world all year long, so they decided there was no need to exercise “utmost caution” when consuming his mother’s meat.
When Farah and Cabal last competed together, it was at the London 2019 ATP Finals, where they advanced to the semifinals. Farah was supposed to make his 2020 debut with Cabal in Adelaide when he was indicted in January. He then withdrew and took a plane to Los Angeles. The two are scheduled to compete in Rio de Janeiro the following week.
