A scientific study on attack scenarios from the ARD film “Schuldig” could have a significant impact on the doping case of the Saxon weightlifter Vicky Schlittig – and cause the anti-doping institutions to explain themselves.
Actually everything seemed clear: In a doping test on the sidelines of the Junior European Championships, Oral-Turinabol, a forbidden steroid, was detected in the German weightlifter Vicky Schlittig. An East German athlete with a GDR doping classic in what is possibly the most doping-contaminated sport in the world – everything fits together.
But now a spectacular turning point is looming. The responsible district judge in Chemnitz, who is to judge the case under the file number 9 Ds 810 Js 40922/21 under the Anti-Doping Act, dropped the main hearing eight days before the date. On September 1, he ordered a biochemical expert to be called in by order of evidence.
It needs to be clarified whether there are other ways in which the substance could have entered the athlete’s body than intentional ingestion. The public prosecutor’s office can confidently evaluate the surprising turn of events as a violent reprimand. “The public prosecutor’s office did not undertake any investigative work to provide any evidence“, says Schlittig’s Berlin lawyer Steffen Lask, “the public prosecutor’s office has only taken a positive doping result.“
Strong evidence of transmission through the skin
In the next few days, the case threatens to become even more complicated for Wada investigators, and proving guilt even more delicate. Lask has hired a Dutch anti-doping expert who is currently working on a second expertise. In it, Douwe de Boer from Maastricht, an experienced anti-doping expert, takes into account the latest scientific findings that a Cologne research group published in the specialist journal in mid-August, including the detectability of Oral-Turinabol “Drug Testing and Analysis” published.
Letter from the International Testing Agency to Vicky Schillig.
The study was based on an experiment that was the focus of the ARD documentary “Geheimsache Doping -guilty” last year. The possible parallel to the Schlittig case: The film experimented with the administration of dehydrochloromethyltestosterone, the chemical name of Oral Turinabol, through the skin – the substance that is normally administered by tablet. The suspicion: could Vicky Schlittig be affected by the transmission of doping substances through skin contact? Intentionally or unintentionally?
“The study explains that a person can be positive through skin contamination. And in the case of dehydrochloromethyltestosterone, there is a very specific signature“, says Douwe de Boer: “In the case of Vicki Schlittig, this very signature is present in her urine, strongly suggesting that she received the substance through the skin.“
It is particularly strange in this context that Oral-Turinabol is only available on the black market – as a powder, tablet or liquid to be injected, but not as an ointment. “We must accept“, says de Boer, “that she is innocent.“
10,000 euros spent in the fight for innocence
What is striking is that neither the investigators in the field of sports law, i.e. the International Test Agency (ITA), nor the public prosecutor in Chemnitz, who brought the charges at the district court, follow up on the findings. It is particularly noteworthy that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) does not even know that the scientific study has long been published. When asked by ARD, she asked when the study would appear.
One of the inconsistencies in Schlittig’s scientific findings is not only a strange pattern of Oral Turinabol degradation products in the urine analysis, but also the very small amount of the drug found in the urine, which would rule out an actual doping effect. In addition, Schlittig was tested frequently and regularly – 26 times within five years – and all tests were negative, including shortly before and after the positive test.
Training in the chicken coop
However, Oral Turinabol, which accelerates muscle growth, would only make sense for a doper if he takes it for a long period of time. Schlittig’s attorney Lask says: “These unusual analysis results are not taken into account by the ITA, on the contrary, we are offered a four-year ban. I think that’s unfair.”
Vicky Schlittig’s life has been thrown completely out of balance as a result of the doping test. Your contract with the Bundeswehr has ended. The procedures have already devoured around 10,000 euros. She had to move back to her parents in Gröditz, Saxony, and is now training alone in a converted chicken coop. Whether any institution that has to decide on their guilt will appreciate all the evidence, including exculpatory evidence, remains to be seen. “It’s a very psychological burden. I don’t wish anyone to go through that” says Schlittig, “it weighs heavily on you.“