When Melky Cabrera first tested positive for testosterone in late July, he became the second baseball star whose sample would be sent to the Laboratoire de Controle du Dopage in Montreal for a more sophisticated test called a carbon isotope ratio test (CIR), also known as IRMS, that would identify the presence of synthetic testosterone in his urine.
Why did MLB do this with Braun and Cabrera? Were they tipped off to something, or did something in their statistics set off a red flag? Since this test is more expensive than the ratio test normally done, one would think MLB had a good idea they would find something in the urine. I could also believe that while both these players had ratios in range when they took the normal test, they might not have matched a base line. I’d love to hear more about this from MLB. What causes them to go for the more sophisticated test?
“He most recently took his message to the London Olympics, where he claimed that of the top 20 athletes in each Olympic event, 60% were staying under the radar by doping in the offseason and by using fast-acting testosterone gels, creams and patches that clear the system before they can be detected.”
How soon after each event are athletes tested? And I get that PEDs can help build muscle mass, but once you stop taking them (to pass testing time) how do you maintain that muscle mass?
I read this as saying that the sample tested positive under the simpler test, and so then was sent on to the Canadian lab for further, more sophisticated analysis confirming the positive test. Make sense?
Capybara » No, not really. If his T/EP ratio was high, the test is positive. There’s no need for another test.
What I’m thinking is that the test was high, but not high enough to be positive, and there was other information that suggested a better test would come up positive.
Given the union’s past behavior in these matters, this must be permissible at an ironclad level in the agreement, or the union would be screaming bloody murder by now.