{"id":138034,"date":"2019-03-02T16:26:47","date_gmt":"2019-03-02T23:26:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=138034"},"modified":"2019-03-02T16:26:47","modified_gmt":"2019-03-02T23:26:47","slug":"yet-another-major-doping-scandal-rocks-the-world-of-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/03\/02\/yet-another-major-doping-scandal-rocks-the-world-of-sports.html","title":{"rendered":"Yet another major doping scandal rocks the world of sports!"},"content":{"rendered":"

And yet another world-leading sports champion has been suspended for doping, and had all titles, medals and points from the previous year wiped from the record books.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course, what else could you expect from the high-stakes, high-pressure, high-drama world of … um … Bridge?<\/p>\n

As announced Thursday by the World Bridge Federation, Geir Helgemo was suspended for one year after he tested positive for synthetic testosterone and Clomiphene, a fertility drug that accelerates testosterone production in men, after September\u2019s World Bridge Series in Orlando. The WBF said Helgemo \u2014 a Norwegian-born player who now competes for Monaco \u2014 admitted to doping and accepted his suspension, which ends Nov. 20.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One might obviously ask two questions (at least) about this news.\u00a0 The first would be … they do doping tests on bridge players?<\/p>\n

Apparently so. The World Bridge Federation is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (though they don’t play bridge at the Olympics … yet)<\/em>. As such, part of the WBF’s means of labeling themselves a “sport” and therefore getting all sorts of other interesting sponsorship and prestige and etc. opportunities, its competitors have to abide by\u00a0World Anti-Doping Agency rules.<\/p>\n

The second question would be: um, how did these drugs actually help Helgemo’s “performance”?<\/p>\n

That part is a lot murkier.<\/p>\n

Kari-Anne Opsal, president of the Norwegian Bridge Federation, said the drugs were \u201cnot performance enhancing\u201d. In a statement on the federation\u2019s website, she said: \u201cGeir Helgemo \u2026 has previously played for the Norwegian national team and is our biggest star. Many within the bridge community know Geir and respect him.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That said, there’s been no small amount of doping news around the cut-throat world of professional bridge over the last few years.<\/p>\n

The sedentary world of top-level bridge has somehow been on the World Anti-Doping Agency\u2019s radar for years. WADA\u2019s 2016 summary of that year\u2019s drug-test results found that 22 percent of the doping tests done on bridge players came back positive, up from 3.6 percent in 2014. Most of the 2016 positives were for \u201cdiuretics and other masking agents,\u201d though one was for \u201canabolic agents.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBridge is played in tournaments two or three weeks long,\u201d Jaap Stomphorst, a physician and doping expert who works with the WBF, told the Independent in 2015. \u201cPeople tend to get tired, so a stimulant can keep you awake during play.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, yeah … no, I got nothing.<\/p>\n

Here’s hoping Mr. Helgemo gets clean before he gets back into competition again. The bridge world really doesn’t need another scandal like this to draw such bad<\/del> amused press.<\/p>\n

Do you want to know more?<\/em> WaPo<\/a>, The Guardian<\/a>, Anti-Doping World<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And yet another world-leading sports champion has been suspended for doping, and had all titles, medals and points from the previous year wiped from the record books. Of course, what else could you expect from the high-stakes, high-pressure, high-drama world of … um … Bridge? As announced Thursday by the World Bridge Federation, Geir Helgemo … Continue reading “Yet another major doping scandal rocks the world of sports!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[22,67,371],"tags":[1766,1767],"class_list":["post-138034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gaming","category-media-sports","category-war-on-drugs","tag-bridge","tag-doping"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/geir-helgemo.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":28721,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/07\/31\/tweets-from-2012-07-31.html","url_meta":{"origin":138034,"position":0},"title":"Tweets from 2012-07-31","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 31-Jul-12 10:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Lovely sunrise. 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