“Nightmare” is true
Because of sex? Triathlete with a positive doping test
27.02.2025 – 11:15 a.m.Reading time: 2 min.
The Swiss triathlete Imogen Simmonds makes a positive doping test public and explains the circumstances – with an intimate background.
The photo, which the Swiss triathlete IMogen Simmond has posted on Instagram, is already visually noticeable. In contrast to the previous snapshots on your profile, your last post is in black and white. The 31-year-old wrote about the picture that a positive doping test was found on her on December 8 of last year in the run-up to the Ironman 70.3 World Championship.
A lot was found “which corresponds to a pinch of salt in an Olympic swimming pool and would never have given me a performance -enhancing advantage”.
Then she explained: “I had no idea what the substance was or how it could have come into my system. I was stunned and destroyed on the ground.” However, she immediately hired a consultant and initiated investigations. These had shown that their “long -time partner, unknown to me, had taken Ligandrol at the time of the positive test to improve his own physique”. Hair samples have then confirmed a negative result at Simmonds, but the opposite was the case with her partner.
But how did the substance get into your body? Simmonds suspects that there are connections with sexual intercourse: “I had a negative doping control test 6 days before and 22 days afterwards. My partner and I had intimate relationships both the day and before my doping control test on December 8, 2024.
The athlete also spoke about her emotional world and described the case as a “nightmare”. She emphasized: “I take my anti-doping obligations seriously and really believe in clean sport, so it is heartbreaking to connect my name with a forbidden substance.” Nevertheless, she hoped that she could draw attention to this “form of contamination”.