Paralympic Doping Scandals

September 10th, 2008 filed in Olympics

The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games, the thirteenth Paralympics, is currently being held in Beijing, China. The games have been rocked this week by multiple doping scandals. On Tuesday, Pakistani powerlifter, Naveed Ahmed Butt was sent home after testing positive for a steroid, methandienone metabolities. Then on Wednesday, German wheelchair basketball player, Ahmet Coskun was sent home for testing positive for finasteride, a masking agent. On Thursday, two more powerlifters were sent home, also for failing drug tests. In the 2004 Athens Paralympics, 10 anti-doping rule violations were found, now the count for 2008 stands at 4.

Ahmet Coskun was BEAT by the testing
Billy Beater

Ahmet Coskun has been caught up in this entire scandal due to a simple mistake. Finasteride is a synthetic substance that is often used to fight hair loss. Coskun has stated in interviews that he used a hair growth product, and had no idea it contained banned substances. “I’m completely distraught, doping never entered my mind.” This is a case where an athlete is being punished for living in a culture that assumes the worst of everyone. He should be allowed to finish competing with his team in an event that he has trained so hard for.

The Paralympians CHEATed
Chester Cheater

Powerlifters testing positive for steroids? Shocking. The three lifters who have tested positive are Naveed Ahmed Butt from Pakistan, Fracourou Sissoko of Mali and Liudmyla Osmanova of Ukraine. All three were disqualified from the games and banned from the sport for 2 years. The more interesting case here is that of the German wheelchair basketball player pictured above. He claims to have used the drug for hair restoration purposes. It doesn’t look like he needs hair restoration to me. Finasteride is a known masking agent, and Ahmet Coskun used it to block testing of the real illegal substances, that he used to CHEAT in the Parlympic games.