Drug user overplayed his hand
A new name has joined Lance Armstrong and Russian Olympic gold medallists on the list of champions to fall foul of a drug test. This time, though, the sport shaken by revelations of banned substance-taking at the highest level is not cycling or athletics – it’s bridge.
Geir Helgemo, 49, the world number one, has been suspended for a year and ordered to hand back several medals after testing positive for synthetic testosterone and a female fertility drug.
Helgemo, who was born in Norway but represents Monaco, began competing internationally at age 19. He has won numerous titles in Europe and the United States, including the Bermuda Bowl, the game’s world team championship.
During the World Bridge Series last September in Orlando, Florida, he failed a drug test administered by the sport’s governing federation, which is regulated by the World AntiDoping Agency (Wada).
The watchdog said Helgemo acknowledged that he had broken the rules and had accepted a provisional suspension, which will last until November.
He was also ordered to return all his titles, awards and points from the series last year, and to pay the cost of his hearing.
It is unclear why Helgemo was taking the drugs. Testosterone, the male sex hormone, tends to be illicitly used in sports where power or endurance are required, rather than an uncanny ability to judge the value of the queen of spades.
A recent review by Dutch authorities of doping in intellectual sports concluded that there was little scientific evidence that testosterone or other hormones would help contestants.
The fertility drug, clomifene, is used to elevate the levels of another family of sex hormones called gonadotropins. It is typically prescribed to women who are not ovulating, but can indirectly make up for a shortage of testosterone production in men.
Kari-Anne Opsal, president of the Norwegian bridge federation, said: ‘‘Geir . . . is our biggest star. Many within the bridge community know Geir and respect him. It is his responsibility not to take substances that are on the doping list, even though in this instance they are not performance-enhancing in bridge.
‘‘I feel for Geir in this situation and hope he will come back stronger after his ban ends.’’ Helgemo is the most prominent bridge player to fall foul of anti-doping regulations, but not the first.
Hjordis ‘‘Disa’’ Eythorsdottir, an American born in Iceland, was stripped of the silver medal she won at the world open championships in 2002 after she refused to take a drug test.
Such incidents are not uncommon. Figures from Wada show that in 2017, three out of 11 urine samples provided by the World Bridge Federation contained banned substances. This doping rate – 27 per cent – was the highest recorded by any sport’s global governing body, with the exception of bodybuilding.
For comparison, only 0.3 per cent of cricketers, 2.8 per cent of powerlifters, 10.5 per cent of billiards players and 15.4 per cent of bowls players failed their tests.
A study in 2010 by researchers from Nova Southeastern University in Florida suggested, however, that bridge was a paragon of cleanliness compared with poker. The inquiry surveyed players at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas and found that 73 per cent admitted using drugs, including cocaine and amphetamines, to aid their concentration. – The Times