LAUSANNE, Switzerland, February 4. AFTER appealing FINA’s decision to strip him of his men’s 1500-meter freestyle title from the World Short Course Championships in 2012 following a positive doping test, the Court of Arbitration for Sport decided today to uphold Mads Glaesner’s appeal to retain the world title.
As explained in a succinct release posted below, Glaesner tested positive for phenpromethamine, a specified stimulant which is prohibited in-competition on Dec. 14 following his bronze medal in the men’s 400-meter freestyle. Two days later, after winning the 1500 free, he was tested on Dec. 16 and was negative for all prohibited substances.
Glaesner claimed that he used an American Vicks Inhaler, that was mislabeled with the cover of the Danish Vicks Inhaler, which have “different chemical compositions.” Glaesner used the product on Dec. 14, believing it to be the Danish product that does not contain any prohibited substances, but had used the American version.
The FINA Doping Panel enacted a three-month doping bad commencing March 19, 2013, and stripped him of all results from Dec. 14 2012 onwards.
Glaesner appealed the result forfeiture, but did not contest the positive test of the three-month suspension. He solely focused on the disqualification of his results on Dec. 16. CAS, today, found that there was no reason to disqualify Glaesner’s results from Dec. 16, and ordered FINA to issue a correction of Glaesner’s record.
CAS Full Release
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has admitted the appeal filed by the Danish swimmer Mads Glasner against an element of the decision taken by the FINA Doping Panel on 14 June 2013 (the FINA Decision). As a consequence, the disqualification of the athlete from the men’s 1500m freestyle final of the World Swimming Championships (25m) in Istanbul, where he won the gold medal, is annulled.
In December 2012, the athlete took part in the 11th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) in Istanbul. The athlete took the bronze medal in the men’s 400m freestyle final on 14 December 2012 and subsequently underwent an in-competition doping control test. Two days later, on 16 December 2012, the athlete was awarded the gold medal in the men’s 1500m freestyle final and underwent another in-competition doping control test. The test conducted on 14 December 2012 showed the presence of phenpromethamine, a specified stimulant which is prohibited in-competition, whereas the test conducted on 16 December 2012 was negative for all prohibited substances.
Further to a request from the athlete, the laboratory tested his sample for the presence of levmetamfetamine and came to the final conclusion that the prohibited substance present in the sample was in fact levmetamfetamine, a specified stimulant which is prohibited in-competition, and not phenpromethamine. Having established this fact, the athlete was able to explain the presence of the substance based on the accidental mislabelling of an American Vicks Inhaler with the cover of a Danish Vicks Inhaler: two very similar looking products but with different chemical compositions. The athlete explained that he had used the inhaler on 14 December 2012 believing it to be the Danish version which he knew not to contain any prohibited substances. However, he had in fact used the American product. The FINA Doping Panel found that the athlete had committed an anti-doping rule violation and declared him ineligible for three months, commencing on 19 March 2013, and annulled all results achieved by the swimmer from 14 December 2012 onwards including forfeiture of medals and prizes.
In his appeal to the CAS, the athlete did not contest the presence of the substance nor the automatic disqualification of his results in the 14 December 2012 race (and the forfeiture of his bronze medal), nor the three-month suspension. Instead, the object of his appeal to the CAS was to annul the element of the FINA Decision which concerned the disqualification of his results, and therefore his gold medal, in the 16 December 2012 competition and to request that FINA issue a corrective press release.
The case was referred to Sole Arbitrator, Prof. Ulrich Haas (Germany), who issued his decision on the basis of the parties’ written submissions.
The Sole Arbitrator found that according to the applicable rules there was no reason to disqualify the results of the athlete of 16 December 2012. Accordingly, the athlete’s appeal is admitted and the FINA Decision is set aside insofar as it refers to competitive results other than those obtained by Mads Glasner on 14 December 2012. The Sole Arbitrator also ordered FINA to issue the corrective press release requested by the swimmer.
FINA shortly thereafter posted a release correcting the 2012 World Short Course Championship results as directed:
Following the decision of the FINA Doping Panel on June 14, 2013 (see FINA Press Release 47/2013) on the case Mads Glaesner (DEN), the swimmer filed an appeal to the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport). The decision of the CAS, issued on January 31, 2014 stipulates that only the results of the date of testing (December 14, 2012) are forfeited.
Therefore, the final classification of the two relevant events at the 11th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) Istanbul 2012 is established as follows:
400m Free (on December 14, 2012):
Gold Medal Paul Biedermann (GER) 3:39.15
Silver Medal Yun Hao (CHN) 3:39.48
Bronze Medal Matthew Stanley (NZL) 3:41.01
1500m Free (on December 16, 2012):
Gold Medal Mads Glaesner (DEN) 14:30.01
Silver Medal Gregorio Paltrinieri (ITA) 14:31.13
Bronze Medal Pal Joensen (FAR) 14:36.93