Opinion
Peter Bol has finally been cleared of doping, but he deserves answers about his treatment
Andrew Webster
Chief Sports WriterAustralian middle-distance runner Peter Bol was winding down for the day in the tiny independent principality of Andorra in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain when he received the most important phone call of his life.
Having completed a gruelling day of training at altitude, he was told by his US-based lawyer Paul Greene that Sports Integrity Australia (SIA) was abandoning its investigation into whether Bol had used the banned substance EPO.
Greene advised him that SIA was about to release a statement on its website. Seven minutes later, the lengthy release appeared and Bol was officially set free.
So, after provisionally suspending Bol in January, then lifting it in February, but leaving an ongoing investigation hanging over his head for months as wild speculation stirred about his innocence, the federal government’s anti-doping body casually dropped a statement just after dawn on Tuesday AEST, drawing a line under the matter that cast the 29-year-old as an alleged drug cheat.
Those close to Bol say that an informal part of the deal with SIA’s lawyers was that none of them spoke to the media, although this was denied by SIA, with a spokesperson insisting “no deal has been done”.
It would seem ridiculous to gag him: Bol either used illegal substances or he did not, and if he didn’t he should be able to say whatever he wants.
Peter Bol has finally been cleared of using EPO.Credit: Scott McNaughton
Instead, he was afforded a short, sharp Instagram post, in which he wrote: “I have been exonerated! It was a false positive like I have said all along! The news from Sport Integrity Australia today was a dream come true. I am glad that WADA has agreed to review the EPO testing process to prevent future false positives. No one should ever experience what I’ve gone through this year.”
It’s a red-letter day for Bol, but serious questions remain about the uncertainty and unfair scrutiny he has faced since his positive A-sample – which SIA now admits was negative – was leaked to the media just days before he was expected to be named Young Australian of the Year.
In an exclusive interview with this masthead in March, Bol and Greene revealed that two independent laboratories had cleared him of using synthetic EPO, which turbocharges performance and aids recovery by increasing an athlete’s red blood cell count.
Because EPO is produced naturally by a person’s kidneys, anti-doping authorities use subjective testing procedures that determine the levels of the hormone found in the body. At the time, Greene described the actions of SIA and the Australian Sports Drug Testing Laboratory as a “catastrophic blunder”.
Peter Bol’s Instagram post on Tuesday morning.Credit: Instagram
Instead of dropping the investigation, SIA ramped it up, interviewing everyone in Bol’s camp again before finally sitting down with Bol himself in early May, months after it indicated it would.
Bol says he felt like a criminal. Having already coughed up his laptop, phone and access to his emails and texts, he was ordered to provide bank and credit card statements for the past five years.
Meanwhile, by leaving the investigation open for as long as SIA did, speculation stirred about his innocence. Nothing gets tongues wagging like an alleged doping scandal.
When Bol was sidelined in April with a niggling groin and abdominal injury, some incorrectly assumed it was because he was about to be suspended.
No athlete should be subjected to the trauma Bol has endured. Catch the cheats, but not like this.
There was certainly a feeling in athletics circles that investigators were doubling down after Bol and Greene went public with their claims.
Two days after the Herald story was published, federal sports minister Anika Wells appeared on Today, claiming the matter wasn’t over and that all Bol’s samples would be re-tested.
Wells is on the executive committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency, which has now admitted it will review its processes around EPO testing.
“WADA will now undertake a review of current EPO processes,” SIA said in its statement. “It is important to highlight that the analysis for synthetic EPO is a unique process which is different to how other prohibited substances are identified.
Peter Bol burst on to the scene at the COVID-postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021.Credit: Getty Images
“WADA has acknowledged that at all times Sport Integrity Australia adhered to the code in relation to its management of the matter. Athletics Australia, too, has adhered to the required process throughout this matter.
“Athletes in Australia should have confidence in the anti-doping system that has allowed Sport Integrity Australia to conduct a thorough investigation.”
Really? What confidence could any athlete have in anti-doping processes?
Bol was named and shamed for an A-sample that was first said to be positive, then A-typical (which means it was neither negative nor positive), then months later considered negative.
There is no greater plague in sport than doping, but no athlete should be subjected to the trauma Bol has endured. Catch the cheats, but not like this.
As Bol said of the independent testing: “I wasn’t guilty, waiting for a miracle – I was innocent and waiting for it to be proved. I knew it would come ... I don’t want to fight, but I don’t want to go quietly either. We want to improve the whole sport. You can’t have innocent athletes getting done for something they’ve never used.”
Bol is focusing on the World Athletics Championship in Budapest starting on August 19 and he’s finding form at the right time of year, having competed in Europe for the past month.
At a meet in early July in Barcelona, he ran 1 minute 44.29 seconds, which is just outside his personal best.
With the darkest of clouds that have hung over his head for seven months now lifted, watch him go.
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