Trap unveils doping scandal in Brazilian swimming

Nov 23, 2007, 16:53 GMT

Rio de Janeiro - 'Are you blind?' Upon hearing this question from his 10-year-old grandson, Eduardo de Rose - head of the medical commission of the Pan American Sports Organization - launched a crafty trap that unveiled a big doping scandal in Brazilian swimming.

The boy's restlessness was justified. Over the past six years, swimmer Rebeca Gusmao had undergone an impressive physical transformation: she grew from 1.78 to 1.85 metres and put on 10 kilos to weigh 82kg, her arms showed muscles comparable to those of weightlifters and her face developed masculine traits.

It took blindness to ignore the changes. The 23-year-old sportswoman came to be nicknamed 'Giant,' and rumours grew as to the possibility that her transformation might be linked to the use of testosterone.

Gusmao denied it, and attributed her modification and the improvement of her sports results to a tough exercise routine, a polycistic ovary and a happy relationship with singer Gutemberg Amaral.

'Love is the best doping,' she would say.

However, De Rose - considered one of the world's top doping experts - did not believe her, and he decided to set up a 'trap' for the swimmer during this year's Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro.

'During the Pan American Games, many people warned me of the possibility that Rebeca might test positive for doping. Even my little grandson, aged 10, asked me, 'Are you blind?' I explained him that suspicion is one thing, and proof is another,' he said.

De Rose set up a strategy to prove his suspicions. One of the steps he took was to ask the International Swimming Federation (FINA) to test Gusmao by surprise in the morning of July 13. The swimmer had already submitted a urine sample on the night of July 12.

Besides the 'surprise factor,' De Rose was keen on the fact that FINA samples would be examined by a Montreal laboratory that specializes in the detection of testosterone. His aim was 'to avoid that (Gusmao) swam in the Pan American Games, so that it was not necessary to give her the medal and then take it away.'

Then, De Rose asked the Ladetec lab - which examined samples in the search for doping during the Games in Rio - to compare the DNA of two samples supplied by Gusmao, in which 'profile differences' had been detected.

In both cases, the results were disastrous for the 'giant.' The studies in Montreal tested positive for testosterone, and the DNA comparison showed that DNA was different in the two samples, meaning that at least one of them was not Gusmao's.

In the case of testosterone, Gusmao has been suspended and will have to face FINA's doping panel.

If it is confirmed that the substance is exogenous, the swimmer will lose the gold medals she won in 50 and 100 metres freestyle.

The case of an alleged fraud in submitting urine samples is even more complex and could even reach the Brazilian Confederation of Water Sports (CBDA), whose medical director Renata Castro resigned as soon as the double DNA was known.

The doctor is suspected with having cooperated with the fraud. She accompanied Gusmao when every single one of the samples during the Pan American Games were taken - except the one on July 13, the only one that tested positive.

Castro, who will be investigated by the authorities and has to submit a report on the case to the Rio de Janeiro Regional Medicine Council by December - denies the allegations.

'They are trying to pin me down as an accomplice in a case in which I had no reason whatsoever to do anything wrong,' Castro said.

However, the doctor has already been accused by one volunteer in the Games of denying her access to the room where Gusmao submitted her urine for a doping test after winning gold in 50m freestyle.

The scandal angered the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB) - which has been intensely engaged against doping for years - and met with a silence from the CBDA.

Besides, it cast a shadow of doubt on Brazilian swimming, to the point of taking some glow off rising stars like Thiago Pereira - who on Sunday broke the world record in the 200 metres individual medley at the Berlin stop of the FINA Swimming World Cup.