Oussama Mellouli - Positive Drug Test

Positive Drug Test

A few weeks after the conclusion of the 2007 World Championships, reports began to surface that Mellouli had tested positive for a banned substance at the 2006 U.S. Open, November 30 – December 2, 2006. These reports surfaced because FINA, the international governing body of the sport, had discovered that Tunisian authorities had known about the positive test but had only given him a warning. FINA/WADA rules state that when an athlete tests positive for a banned substance, he or she must be given a 2-year ban from the sport. Accordingly, FINA took the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), demanding stiffer sanction.

Mellouli has since admitted that he took the ADD medication Adderall, a stimulant and a form of amphetamine. (Already in June 2006, an American sports commentator wrote: Various studies show rampant use of Adderall, Ritalin and other drugs normally used for attention deficit disorder instead applied toward all-night cramming sessions. ) Mellouli did not have a prescription for the drug, having claimed to have received it from another USC student shortly before the US Open. He argued that he took the pill in order to help himself with writing a term paper (to sustain or enhance his academic performance) in the days leading up to the weekend US Open meet, and that the drug was not intended as a performance-enhancing substance for competitive swimming. However, amphetamines are on the official banned substances list; and can/do help swimming performance.

CAS ruled on Mellouli's case on September 11, 2007, ruling against him and issuing him an 18-month competition suspension, retroactively beginning on November 30, 2006. As a result of this sanction, all his results from the 2006 U.S. Open through the competitions his swam in 2007, including the 2007 World Championships, were nullified. Interestingly, and perhaps conscientiously, his ban from competition covered most, but not all, of the qualification window for the 2008 Olympics. As the retroactive nullification of results wiped out all of his qualifying times for the 2008 Games, he ended up with just a week or two after the ban in order to qualify (which he did).