Even though international testing protocols have become more and more advance, rooting out those that are using performance-enhancing drugs more consistently than ever before, athletes continue to try and tinker with modern chemistry to squeeze out even just a little bit of a performance boost – and many find out first hand just how significant the consequences of these decisions can be.
Canadian bodybuilder and cyclist Greg Doucette is one of those athletes that have learned the hard way just how serious governing bodies are taking performance-enhancing drug use is days.
A professional bodybuilder with an IFBB card for a number of years, Greg Doucette was also pretty popular on the amateur cycling circuit as well. A dominant force for Canada when it came to competition, he was considered to be very much a rising star in the ranks – and now will be sitting on the sidelines of competition for the better part of the next decade.
Already having been sanctioned once by the Canadian Anti-Doping Program for a performance-enhancing drug violation, Doucette has been levied a new eight year suspension for his rules of violation.
Interestingly enough, however, Doucette isn’t receiving this second violation because of a “hot” test. He wasn’t found to have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs at all, in fact.
Instead, Doucette has received this eight year suspension because he flat out refuse to comply with anti-doping agents and control protocols and would not provide a urine and/or blood sample for the Canadian Anti-Doping Program to analyze ahead of competition.
Right out of the gate, the Canadian Anti-Doping Program was adamant in their ability to slap this eight year suspension on Doucette – but the IFBB Professional League has pushed back more than a little bit. They have not been a signatory of the Canadian Anti-Doping Program and have never taken any meaningful action whatsoever that discourages the use of performance-enhancing drugs or anabolic steroids by their members/participants.
There’s absolutely zero mandatory drug testing conducted in this International Federation of Professional Bodybuilders, and insiders and outsiders alike have a “wink wink” understanding that performance-enhancing drug and anabolic steroid use is rampant across this organization and with almost all of their competitors.
Many wonder how Doucette was even tested by the Canadian Anti-Doping Agency, but as more facts came to light it became clear that he was caught not while in bodybuilding, session but instead while participating in an amateur cycling contest in Nova Scotia.
Flat out refusing to submit a sample to the Canadian Anti-Doping Agency test agents in the lead up to that competition was more than enough for Doucette to receive and year suspension.
Recognizing that he was going to fail that test no matter what – and openly admitting that he refused to taking the test simply because he knew that he would pop positive for anabolic steroids and testosterone – Doucette also went on to say that he was using these performance-enhancing drugs for therapeutic use, even though he had never applied for a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE).
Some contend that this was the result of an elaborate sting operation against Doucette as he had positively tested for performance-enhancing drugs in the lead up to a powerlifting competition just two years prior. He continued to compete in non-sanctions and non-drug tested powerlifting in bodybuilding competitions after the suspension, flaunting the rules as have been established by the Canadian Anti-Doping Agency – and that’s why many believe he was singled out and targeted at this recreational cycling event.
It’s likely that Doucette will continue to compete under the IFBB card that he continues to carry and that this suspension is little more than a speedbump for his career. Still, he won’t be able to participate in any of the sanctioned events controlled by the Canadian Anti-Doping Agency for the next eight years no matter what.