On 8 July 2012 the Hearing Panel of the Brazillian Rowing Confederation (CBR) decided to impose a 6 month period on the minor Athlete Gabriella Eduarda Cardozo de Almeida Salles after her sample tested positive for the prohibited substances hydrochlorothiazide and chlorothiazide.
Hereafter the FISA Doping Hearing Panel reviewed the national cases and decided to reopen this case.
In the Decision of 8 July 2012, the CBR Panel found that the prohibited substances could have been the result of supplement contamination. The CBR Panel also agreed with the Athlete’s arguments that as she was not competing at the time of testing, and it was not just before a planned competition then she would not have used the banned substances as masking agents. Based on these arguments, the sanction was reduced from 2 years to six months.
Considering the Athlete’s explanations the FISA Panel finds that the Athlete only speculates on a way that the substance could have entered her body. No evidence was presented which established how the substance hydrochlorothiazide or chlorothiazide came to be in her body.
The Athlete failed to provide in her first written submission or in the Final Plea the name of the supplement which could be at fault and has not shown through analysis that any of the supplements she did take were contaminated or how any particular supplement could have been contaminated at the place of manufacture.
The FISA Panel concludes that the Athlete’s explanations relating to no fault or negligence are not sufficient and that the Athlete did not establish the basis for reducing the sanction from 2 years.
Therefore the FISA Doping Hearing Panel decides in February 2013 to impose 2 year period of ineligibility on the Athlete starting on the date of the original suspension, i.e. on 7 June 2012.
