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Canadian Geneviève Jeanson – once facing a life-time ban from competition - has reached an accord with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that could see the retired cyclist racing her bike as soon as next summer.
Jeanson, who held a U.S. license, announced her retirement in January after USADA officials said they would seek to ban her for life after she tested positive for EPO at Pennsylvania’s Tour de ‘Toona in 2005. Jeanson had been suspended earlier for a failure to appear for post-race doping test at the women’s edition of Fleche-Wallonne in 2004, meaning the Pennsylvania sample qualified as a second offense, making her eligible for a life-long ban.
Jeanson has said the missed test in 2004 was an oversight on her part and denied that she had ever used performance-enhancing drugs. Jeanson was also implicated in a 2003 Canadian investigation in which Montreal orthopedic surgeon Dr. Maurice Duquette was charged with illegally distributing EPO to athletes. Duqutte named Jeanson in court documents as an athlete to whom he had administered performance-enhancing drugs.
While Duquette pleaded guilty to those charges, a day later he sent a letter to Jeanson's attorney denying that he had given the cyclist anything other than the local anesthetic Marcaine.
“I have never in my entire career taken EPO, or any other banned substance,” Jeanson reiterated Tuesday.
Although Jeanson retired at the prospect of a life-time ban, USADA officials pursued the case and the matter was scheduled to be heard by a three-member arbitration panel in December. But late last week, Jeanson and USADA general counsel Travis Tygart reached an agreement that would impose a two-year suspension on the 25-year-old rider, effective from the date of her positive test, July 25, 2005.
The accord stipulates that both sides of the dispute “acknowledge that they are not changing their respective positions by agreeing to this agreement, but seek to end this matter without further process.”
Jeanson continues to maintain her innocence, but said that the deal was the best she could hope for.
“After careful consideration, I’ve decided to accept USADA’s offer,” said Jeanson. “The proposed agreement satisfies my two main concerns. First of all, it is clearly indicated that the agreement does not mean that I admit to having used EPO, which is a crucial point for me. Second, I will finally be finished with this dispute, which has been taking far too much space in my life, draining all my energy for many months. I’ve learned the hard way the meaning of the proverb – ‘a bad agreement is better than a good lawsuit.’
“If I go into arbitration, win or lose, I shudder at the mere thought of the possible appeals. USADA’s offer allows me to get on with my life,” she added.
Had Jeanson been handed a life-time suspension by the panel hearing her case in December, she would have had the option of appealing her case to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland, quite probably adding another six to eight months to the process.
Jeanson said she had been ready to mount a strong challenge to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s EPO testing protocol, a process developed at France’s national anti-doping laboratory at Châtenay-Malabry.
“After the USADA informed me that I had tested positive in July 2005, I did some research to figure out how this could have happened,” Jeanson said in a release issued Tuesday. “I secured the help of a reputable professor and researcher at Ghent University in Belgium, Dr. Joris Delanghe. I am very grateful that he graciously offered to investigate my case.”
Delanghe was instrumental in the successful defense mounted by Belgian triathlete Rutger Beke, who had tested positive for EPO at Belgium’s Knokke Triathlon in September of 2004.
As in the Beke case, Delanghe said he was ready to argue that Jeanson experienced a severe case of exercised-induced proteinuria, which could trigger a false positive.
The EPO test is designed to distinguish the isoforms - proteins produced by different genes - present in synthetic EPO from the natural form of erythropoietin which is produced in the human body.
Testers place those proteins in a gel and apply a low-level electrical charge to the sample. The isoforms from synthesized EPO (rEPO) have a unique set of charges than do those from natural erythropoietin (uEPO) and line up in distinctly different patterns.
Delanghe argues that in addition to her tendency toward exercise-induced proteinuria, Jeanson produces specific urinary proteins which cross-react with isoforms used in the EPO test.
USADA officials said they were prepared to present evidence to the contrary and the agreement in no way indicates a change in the agency’s position that Jeanson had doped at the Tour de ‘Toona in 2005.
Jeanson, who has declined media requests for interviews, concluded her prepared statement by saying she has yet to decide whether she will return to competition or not.
“I’m 25 and I still have a lot of good years ahead of me,” she said. “But accepting the USADA’s offer was a difficult decision. Other decisions will wait.”
