Topic: News: Halil Mutlu Tests Positive For Steroids

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

Halil Mutlu Busted for Steroids

ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkish weightlifter Halil Mutlu, a three-time Olympic champion, tested positive for a banned substance in the European championships last month, according to Turkish media reports.

The Turkish weightlifting federation declined to comment, while an official from the government's directorate of sports said they were investigating the reports.

The mass-circulation Hurriyet newspaper quoted an unnamed source close to Mutlu as saying: "Halil unfortunately tested positive for doping."

The source added: "He did not take the substance deliberately. However, he took pain-killers ahead of the championships because of an injury. The medications might have contained the banned substance."

The outcome of the tests from the European weightlifting championships in Sofia on April 17-24, where Mutlu won three golds in the 62kg category, has been conveyed to the Turkish authorities in a report by the International Weightlifting Federation, the Sabah daily said.

The banned substance was an anabolic steroid, it said.

[Butch Curry]

And unfortunate news for the Olympic Sport of Weightlifting.

Although we all "knew" that to lift triple bodyweight and win 3 Olympic Gold Medals took a little "extra", this will just bring the criticism of the rest of the Olympic Family. And  again cause us to defend our Olympic Status.

BUTCH!

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

You know, Halil seemed like a real nice guy, but I am happy he got caught since I always root for cheaters to get caught. I still think he is a great lifter, or more accurately, could have been a great lifter without cheating (he is second in world history on total by Golden Standard formula as I recall). Of course, he wouldn't have won many big contests without the drugs since so many others are cheating too, but he still would obviously have been a great weightlifter.

[Don Weideman]

Is there any lifter on the world stage that we can say,  
without hesitation, is not nor ever has been a cheater.

Is it,  the legends just never got caught?

It's like magic, it's only fun when you believe what you're
seeing.

[Butch Curry]

The only person you can be 100% sure about is yourself. This won't change until Testing is at the point where every athlete is randomly tested on a no advanced notice basis. And even then, people will believe that the top athletes are taken some BALCO type undetectable drug.
 
And now Medical Science has us on the brink of "Genetic Doping". I don't want to even guess how they will test for that.

[Steve Gough]

There is some inference that Mutlu was popped for "cortesone", which I never realized was on the banned list. If so I do not understand why it would be banned. Somebody enlighten me.

Steve

[Steve Gough]

I wish I had something brilliant/deep to say. But Sabonis got caught... and the Greeks have an excellent program, plenty of do re mi and all the moxie in the world. Likewise the Turks. I don't get it. Why be so blatantly stupid. All I can think of is Mark McGuire and the Senate sub-committee on Steroids in the Major Leagues... all that good stuff he engendered in his career for naught, stumbling over his inept tongue while  trying to hide behind a transparent veil of excuses that won't wash no matter how much time passes.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

The only person you can be 100% sure about is yourself. This won't change until Testing is at the point where every athlete is randomly tested on a no advanced notice basis.

I don't see the IWF ever having enough money to do this. Testing is already consuming a large percentage of their budget and they "only" performed a 1000 out-of comp tests this last year. I think it would probably take 10,000 tests a year to put a dent in the situation with the present testing system and the money is simply not there.

I think tests should not be random at all, but targeted. All countries should have to submit a small list of potential competitors (say 10-16 for an 8 person team) a year out from each international meet making them subject to testing. If they weren't on the list a year out, they can't compete. Thus, the pool of people to be tested would shrunk immensely and the doping budget would be stretched a lot further. We should also test the lifters lifting the most weight the most often. And, we should test the countries that win the most medals and the countries that get busted the most more often. We would thus get way more bang for our buck out of each test.

I also think, due to financial limitations, we must have a lifetime suspension on the first offense for anabolic steroids. We also need to increase the suspensions of national federations with athletes caught for anabolics in out-of-comp or competition testing to 2 years banned from international competition the first time one of their athletes is caught in out-of-comp or in-comp testing during a quad. On the second offense in a quad, the national federation should be banned for 4 years to include at least one Olympic Games. I also think we need to start making the national federations pay for more of the testing of their own athletes conducted by IWF and/or WADA.

We are eventually headed for a train wreck in this sport, because the dopers and doper nations are dead set to try and get away with it as long as they can and nothing significant is being done to rectify the situation. Eventually, some of the scandals buried behind the scenes are going to come out and/or the dopers will get a little too bold and have A LOT of them caught, and we will have a massive scandal on our hands which may destroy our sport entirely.