Athletes Dougie Walker and Gary Cadogan also tested positive but were later cleared. French footballer Christophe Dugarry, Spencer Smith, Britain's former world triathlon champion, and Merlene Ottey, the Jamaican sprinter, have also tested positive but say they are innocent. Boxer Jon Thaxton was recently banned for nine months after testing positive. The former Australian open champion Petr Korda was banned from playing professional tennis for two years. He was later cleared on appeal.
Athletes often use that defence, but it has only ever been once proved successful.
In 1995 hurdler Lydumila Enquist had a four-year suspension lifted after her husband admitted to a Russian court that he had spiked his wife's food with anabolic steroids in a fit of jealousy after she had asked him for a divorce. Anabolic steroids are prescription-only medicines, and in it is illegal to supply them, though not to possess them. Mark Richardson says the three nutritional supplements which he took were bought from Maximuscle of north London, a supplier of sports supplements. Most of them comes from the US, and are often sold by health food suppliers as well as specialist sports retailers.