Moninger faces two-year suspension
Positive raises questions about supplements
After 21 years of racing - 12 of them as a professional - Scott Moninger had been thinking of how he might eventually leave the sport of cycling. It's not that he had to - Moninger is the winningest cyclist in the country with a total of 209 career victories, and is still winning races - it's just that it's time. By the age of 36, any pro athlete starts seriously considering retirement. In fact, Moninger and his wife had recently agreed that he would probably race for another two years before moving on to the next phase of his life. But Moninger may no longer have that option.
On Friday, the U.S. Anti-doping Agency is expected to announce that Moninger has tested positive for 19-Norandrosterone at the 2002 Saturn Classic in Colorado, a race he won in 2000. In keeping with its standard practice, USADA is likely to recommend that Moninger be suspended for two years.
Moninger, who has been racing since 15 and a professional since 1991, insists he never knowingly ingested the testosterone precursor banned under national and international rules. After his “B-sample” also came back positive, Moninger said that he couldn’t dispute the result and went looking for an explanation.
Moninger said he now has that explanation: a contaminated dietary supplement. It’s a common defense; one often employed by riders who test positive, and one that Moninger himself has dismissed in the past.
“Well, I know whenever I’ve heard ‘contaminated supplement’ in the past I always figured that they were using something suspicious anyway, some sort of basement Chinese herbal concoction or something you bought from a trainer at the gym,” Moninger told VeloNews.
But what makes Moninger’s case unique, he says, is the fact that he has tracked down the offending supplement, had it tested and owns sealed bottles for later testing to back up his claim.
When told of the result, Moninger said he searched for an explanation, narrowed the field of suspects down to four dietary supplements. After turning in samples to an independent testing lab, one – a locally purchased bottle of the amino acid L-Tyrosine – was shown to be contaminated with 28mg of 19-Norandrosterone per 500 mg capsule, more than enough to trigger a positive drug test.
"For my own peace of mind, I needed to know for sure how this stuff got into my system,” Moninger said in an e-mail to friends and colleagues. “I took what remained of this particular amino acid supplement, along with a few others and shipped them off to a lab to be tested for contamination. This is a very expensive procedure and one that uses a majority of the contents so having this done prior to taking it, is just not feasible.
“I've now learned that apparently, contamination is quite common in amino acid supplements, which are often produced in the same factories or even with the same machinery as the supplements which are known to be banned. The banned stuff is apparently bought by those who are either not tested in their competitions or are not concerned with destroying their bodies.In my 21-year career I have been tested literally hundreds of times around the world, both in and out of competition and always with the same results: negative. I have always had the reputation as a ‘clean’ rider and as someone who has nothing to hide. All of this is particularly difficult for me because I've always been against drugs in cycling and I've voiced my opinion numerous times on the topic.”
Moninger said he intends to exercise his option to call a hearing to review the case and seek to overturn USADA’s recommended penalty.
“It’s effectively a lifetime ban,” Moninger said. “In fact, if I was a year or two older, I might even just walk away from it and not even bother … though I would really hate to end my career on that note. It would be bad to just give up, but the costs are mounting. I have legal fees, testing fees — every bottle tested is $900, for example — hearings and a lot of time and effort. It’s a lot to invest just to clear your name, but I feel strongly about this and I know I am innocent and I need to spread the word that this is not just another lame excuse and people need to know that this stuff is out there.”For a complete interview with Moninger on this subject, see the December 16, 2002 issue of VeloNews.
Read Moninger'se-mailed statement.
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