2nd August 2017

Italian Giuseppe Ippolito has come close to the record for the number of prohibited substances detected in a single sample by returning an adverse analytical finding (AAF) for 14 different substances. Italy’s national anti-doping agency (NADO Italia) confirmed that the bodybuilder had tested positive at the Italian Federation of Bodybuilding (IFBB) Championships in Rome on 2 July, and had been provisionally suspended.

While two of the AAFs were for metabolites of the same substance (nandrolone), guidelines published by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) state that two AAFs may be recorded for metabolites of nandrolone. ‘The detection of the use of nandrolone and other 19-norsteroids is based primarily upon the identification of the main urinary metabolite, 19-norandrosterone (19-NA) in a concentration (derived from hydrolysis with -glucuronidase) greater than the Decision Limit (DL), as established in the DL Technical Document’, reads WADA Technical Document – TD2014NA: Harmonisation of Analysis and Reporting of 19-Norsteroids Related to Nandrolone. ‘More than one metabolite [e.g., 19-noretiocholanolone (19-NE)] of administered norsteroids may be detected and reported but the identification and quantification and the demonstration, when required, that the 19-NA metabolite does not come from endogenous origin is sufficient to report an Adverse Analytical Finding (AAF)’.

It appears that the dubious ‘record’ for the number of different substances detected in a single sample is held by another Italian bodybuilder, Claudio Stella. He tested positive for 20 substances at the North Italian Bodybuilding Championships last year, where The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) confirmed that 11 bodybuilders had tested positive. Stella tested positive for: Anastrozole, Canrenone, Indapamide, Torasemide, b-Boldenone, Boldenone metabolite, Drostanolone, Drostanolone metabolite, Oxandrolone, Oxandrolone metabolites, Trenbolone metabolite, Fluoxymesterone metabolites, Letrozole, Letrozole metabolite, Mesterolone metabolite, Tamoxifen metabolite, Stanozolol metabolites, Sibutramine metabolites, 19-Noretiocholanolone, 19-Norandrosterone >DL.

Italian rugby player Davide Vasta tested positive for 11 different substances last year. The Amatori Catania player claimed to have taken the substances whilst bodybuilding. The 14 substances found in Ippolito’s sample are listed in the table below.