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Second U.S. Gymnast Gets USADA Warning

Monday, August 04, 2008 By Amanda Turner
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A second U.S. gymnast has received a warning from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for taking a glucocorticostreroid without filing the proper exemption.

U.S. national team member Tim McNeill tested positive for triamcinolone acetonide on May 24, at the U.S. Championships in Houston. The USADA announced in July that Olympic team member Morgan Hamm had tested positive for the same substance.

As with Hamm, the doping offense involved the use of a prescribed anti-inflammatory medication under the care of a physician, but without first seeking the required therapeutic use exemption, the FIG announced Monday. McNeill received a warning for the incident, a first offense.

The FIG stated that, as in the case with Hamm, it would not pursue any sanction.

"At the close of discussions and following recommendations put forth by the Disciplinary Commission, the FIG Presidential Commission decided not to appeal the USADA's decision," the FIG stated.

McNeill, who attends Cal Berkeley, finished seventh all-around at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June.

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Comments (5 posted):

nlm2183 on Monday, August 04, 2008
The U.S. men's program, from the higher ups to the coaches and athletes, need to get it together and make sure they are more careful about these sorts of things.

Though it is not doping, I am reminded of the U.S. men's program at the 2004 Olympics not knowing that a certain skill on HB had been devalued and they had to scramble to change two routines during the Olympics so that they could still get decent values for their routines.

These kinds of things need to stop. I understand people make mistakes, and I am not trying to put them down or be cruel, but I just don't want to see these types of things happening. It's embarrassing and impedes the athletes from having peace of mind in preparation for competing.
Vicki on Monday, August 04, 2008
Wow, these are still coming in? And not even from trials? Maybe whoever else got these injections should just say so now or file paperwork retroactively. It would be less embarrassing than having these positives popping up.
anonymous on Wednesday, August 13, 2008
I agree that someone needs to "get it together" about these cortisone shots, but it certainly shouldn't be the athlete's job. Coaches, maybe, doctors, certainly, and the "higher-ups" at USAG, certainly. I know both Morgan and Tim personally, and I know that they work more than full-time jobs as athletes (in the sense that more than 40 hours of their week is spent on actual mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual training. The athletes should be allowed to focus on their training, and the medical issues should be taken care of by the Doctors in collaboration with USAG. USAG has never been good about educating gymnasts about their insurance coverage, etc., so they need to appoint someone to take care of that aspect of the athletes' well-being so that the gymnasts can focus on what they are expected to do, which is to perform at their best.
nlm2183 on Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Oh, I wasn't really trying to put a bunch of blame on the athletes. Only in certain situations they can personally control themselves - being serious about training, taking care of their health as best they can, etc. It was called to my attention later that these guys were not informed correctly about filing the papers. And that's USAG's fault. They shoulder a great majority of the blame for most situations.
anonymous on Thursday, August 14, 2008
I really didn't think you were attacking the gymnasts themselves, I just wanted to give a little perspective from their point-of-view so that others don't jump to the conclusion that it's the athletes trying to cheat the system through the use of steriods.

I felt that Morgan's situation was presented in the media as if he was "shooting up steroids" as a performance enhancing drug, which was never the case, and couldn't possibly be the case because that "shooting up steroids" would make any gymnast worse by increasing their mass to strength ratio--that's why you've never before heard of a steroids controversy in the sport of gymnastics. The sports in which steroids use is an issue are those that require absolute strength as opposed to relative strength. In Gymnastics, an anthlete's strength must be high relative to their weight, so using steroids would affect their gymnastics skills negatively.

I hope that anyone reading this who saw this story or that of Morgan Hamm's situation and believed that they were illegally using Steroids to improve performance has learned something: That is not a scenario that is likely to happen, and in these two cases I can assure you that that is not what happened!

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