Italian cyclist Riccardo Ricco was banned for 12 years by the country’s anti-doping tribunal on Thursday for self-transfusions of his own blood.
The tribunal agreed with the length of the ban proposed by the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) in October. Ricco was also fined 5,000 euros (US$6,588) and ordered to pay legal costs of 15,000 euros.
The ban for a second doping offense will almost certainly end Ricco’s career, as he turns 29 in September. Ricco, who finished second in the 2008 Giro d’Italia, was once hailed as a future Italian cycling great before tarnishing his career.
Ricco has not raced since he was rushed to a hospital after falling ill at his home near Modena in February last year.
The doctor who treated him reportedly told police the cyclist confessed to using transfusions of his own blood, which he allegedly kept in his home refrigerator.
He was fired by Dutch team Vacansoleil-DCM after the incident. Ricco was preparing to race again after joining third-division team Meridiana-Kamen, but CONI provisionally suspended him in June “for reasons related to the athlete’s own health.”
Ricco had been banned for 20 months after testing positive for the blood-booster CERA following victories in two mountain stages at the 2008 Tour de France. His team at the time, Saunier-Duval, fired him.
“Ricco’s case is noteworthy for the expansion of criminal case-type investigative tools — including informers and insiders — to develop and prove anti-doping cases,” said Maurice Suh, a former prosecutor and partner with Gibson Dunn’s Collar Defense and Investigations practice, which has advised professional athletes in doping cases.
“No longer are anti-doping cases driven by random testing, but other investigative tools have become important,” Suh said.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later