Courtney King and Mythilus

[creseis_acicula]

Has anyone heard any news about the alleged positive drug test on Mythilus and his heart problems since the Olympics? I just read a blurb about it and was wondering if anyone had read any substantial information

Comments

[phoenix_igniton]

COTH has the results on a blurb in their olympic forum.

[halfpass_19]

And the US team's 4th-place finish was revoked, since her scores were invalidated. It's a very, very weird situation; but the FEI has a no-tolerance policy, and nobody could explain where it came from, so...there you have it.

I was really shocked by the news that Myth had been in fibrillation following the flight. I'd never heard of the condition in horses before; a relative of mine has atrial fibrillation, and it's kind of a big deal. So I was really surprised that he competed so soon after being defibrillated.

[creseis_acicula]

Holy cow. I did not hear what happened, at all, I just heard something happened. Poor horse :(

Hey, you wouldn't happen to know if they sold Tsunami, would you?

[halfpass_19]

Nope, don't know.
If you look on UDBB and COTH there's a lot of info. about the many doping cases at this year's Olympics. I think the FEI announced the ruling in Courtney's case fairly recently; shouldn't be too hard to find the details. I know that she still stands fully behind her grooms and team and insists that neither she nor they knowingly gave the horse Felbinac.

[halfpass_19]

Here, I think these are the most relevant. Probably more than you ever wanted to know!

http://www.dressagedaily.com/2008/dd_200809/dd_20080923-oly-king-dye.html

http://www.ultimatedressage.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=141205&highlight=

http://www.chronicleforums.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=164570

http://www.chronicleforums.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=168303

[rckmeamadeus]

first I've heard of it but could possibly explain why they did not compete at Devon

[skyhuntress]

yup. rodrigo pessoa also was accused of doping and found guilty.

[emidala]

yet he's sidestepping his suspension and competing anyway. boooh!

[12to15steps]

There's plenty of coverage on the Chronicle and Dressage Daily, as others have pointed out.

It's a crappy situation all around, for the sport, for Courtney, for her sponsors. Ultimately, there's no way to prove whether or not the drug was given by bad dastardly sneaky people, or by purely innocuous circumstances, and in order to be fair the FEI tribunal has no choice but to punish according to their by-laws.

I think the real issue is whether or not to change what amount of a drug is illegal or not as testing gets more sensitive. In the "olden days," zero tolerance was a good choice, as if your horse popped positive with the not-so-sensitive testing equiptment, the drug was clearly in a concentration high enough to affect performance. Now that the testing is so incredibly sensitive, there's a case to be made for changing "zero tolerance" and drawing a line somewhere.

I don't have any answers, and I doubt that there's an answer that will make everyone happy! Alas!