HARRIS TO APPEAL DRUG SUSPENSION
Briane Harris, a four-time Canadian women’s curling champion and longtime lead for Kerri Einarson’s Manitoba team, plans to appeal after receiving a provisional suspension of up to four years for testing positive for a banned substance.
Harris’s lawyer, Amanda Fowler, said in a statement that Harris believes she was exposed to the banned substance Ligandrol through bodily contact.
“In the circumstances, Ms. Harris is therefore keen to clear her name and will seek to expedite any process or mechanism to facilitate such vindication,” Fowler said.
Harris, 32, was ruled ineligible for the recent Scotties Tournament of Hearts just hours before the event began.
Team Einarson entered the event as four-time defending champions, but quickly had to pivot to using alternate player Krysten Karwacki at lead.
Harris was tested out-of-competition on Jan. 24 and the ‘A’ sample came back on Feb. 15, a day before the Scotties. She was ruled ineligible for the Scotties while doping control officers awaited the results of a ‘B’ sample. That came back last week and confirmed the positive test for Ligandrol, which is banned by the World Anti-doping Agency because it is used to increase muscle growth and energy.
After weeks of speculation about Harris’s mysterious ineligibility for the Scotties, it was the athlete herself, along with her lawyer, who made the positive test public.
Harris, who is from Winnipeg, plans to appeal the ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
“As best as can be determined at this time, Ms. Harris was unknowingly exposed to the banned substance through bodily contact,” Fowler said.
There is precedent for athletes testing positive for Ligandrol and being found not guilty after arguing it was the result of third-party contamination.
Canadian canoeist Laurence Vincent Lapointe was cleared by an International Canoe Federation anti-doping panel in 2020 after arguing that she did not knowingly ingest the Ligandrol that was found in her system.
Vincent Lapointe successfully argued that the trace amounts of the drug in her system could have come from bodily fluids exchanged with her former boyfriend, as Ligandrol can be transferred through saliva, sweat and semen.
Harris released a statement to Devin Heroux of CBC Sports on Tuesday.
“I was entirely shocked and devastated when I became aware of my positive test result,” Harris said in the statement.
“As someone who does not take any supplements at all and hesitates to take Advil or Tylenol, I was in disbelief that this could happen to me.
“I was crushed that I could not play in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts and help my teammates defend our title. My goal is now to resolve this as soon as possible to preserve my Olympic dreams ... It would be unbearable to have that in jeopardy over no wrongdoing on my part.”
The World Curling Federation released a statement later the same day announcing the provisional suspension and said “the results management process under the anti-doping rules remains ongoing.”
Reached by email, World Curling Federation media relations officer Christopher Hamilton said the organization was under no obligation to make the positive test public.
“We would not normally release the name of the athlete until the case was going to a panel,” Hamilton said. “We only released the name today once Briane had made the choice to release her name to the public.”
Harris’s teammates, Einarson, Val Sweeting, Shannon Birchard and Karwacki, soldiered on in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts but were eliminated in an early playoff round, ending their four-year run as Canadian champions.
“We will continue to have Briane’s back and stand by her through this process,” the team said in a statement issued Tuesday morning. “We remain focused on finishing the season on a strong note and will curl to the best of our abilities for our team, our families, sponsors and our fans. Thank you for your ongoing support.”
Curling Canada, which was informed of the positive test before the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, but was told to not speak on the subject until either Harris or the WCF released the news, put out a statement on Tuesday.
“Curling Canada was deeply disappointed to receive the news of Briane Harris’s adverse analytical finding on the opening day of the Tournament of Hearts,” the release said.
“Our organization is committed to the values of clean and safe sport, as outlined by both the World Anti-doping Agency and the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport. We respect the integrity of the testing process and accept the results of the test, as well as Briane’s right to appeal the findings.”
Curling Canada CEO Nolan Thiessen said his organization has simply been a bystander in all of this.
Thiessen said Curling Canada will now simply have to wait and respect the process, like everyone else involved.