Australian Olympian Peter Bol was officially cleared of taking performance enhancing drugs earlier this year, but admits the testing fiasco took a huge toll on him and his loved ones.
In January the 28-year-old was shocked to learn he returned a positive finding for EPO and was suspended from athletics throwing his life into chaos.
Bol proclaimed his innocence and a subsequent independent analysis of the athlete’s B-sample returned an atypical finding, or a false positive.
The Commonwealth Games silver medalist was later officially exonerated after Sport Integrity Australia declared it would not progress with an anti-doping rule violation and closed its investigation.
On Monday night on an episode of SAS Australia, Bol revealed how he reacted when he learned of the bizarre test result.
Peter Bol has revealed the terrible toll a drug testing mistake took on him
The track star was officially exonerated from taking performance enhancing drugs
‘I was devastated, I had never considered cheating,’ he said.
‘It came public and it went crazy. The media came hard. That was tough especially having media waiting outside my parents [house].
‘I just felt we had been attacked and robbed. But the people that doubted you is what mattered most.
‘So when the [negative] results came out. I didn’t even know how to react. I wasn’t excited. I wasn’t going to celebrate my own innocence so I was more angry and disappointed by how I was treated.
‘I felt betrayed but I figured I can’t focus on that so I might as well go and break a few more records.’
Bol said the testing fiasco also impacted the lives of his loved ones.
‘It’s the worst thing an athlete can ever go through,’ said Bol.
‘My parents had to go through my allegations as much as I did and they had nothing to do with it.’
Bol said he didn’t know how to react when he found out the shocking news
Bol said he felt betrayed and that he has never considered cheating
The World Anti-Doping Agency acknowledged the announcement from Sport Integrity Australia clearing Bol and vowed to ‘undertake a review of current EPO processes’ after Bol’s nightmare.
‘While we have no reason to question the validity of the analytical method used for recombinant EPO, WADA will assess the current review process in light of the particularities of this case,’ a WADA statement said.
Bol, who ran fourth in the final of the 800m at the Tokyo Olympics, has returned to running ahead of the Paris Olympics.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk