The former Australian open champion Petr Korda was banned from playing professional tennis for two years. He was later cleared on appeal. Mark Richardson was cleared of taking nandrolone by UK Athletics in July but the IAAF said it would still send his case to the arbitration panel. Richardson has denied having done anything illegal, but admits that he ignored advice to stop taking nutritional supplements, which may contain nandrolone. Richardson says in future he would not take supplements.
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 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 come from the US, and are often sold by health food suppliers as well as specialist sports retailers.