Martin Grab in front of his heaviest step

The last case of doping in swing is the most spectacular because it affects a bad guy. For Martin Grab, the presumption of innocence is valid, as long as the B sample is not open and no judgment is given.

Martin Grab, seven times Confederate, winner of the 2002 Expo-Schwingets in Murten, winner of the Unspunnenfest 2006 in Interlaken, could be positive The results are not blocked, or at most with a symbolic effect. Because the Schwyzer of Rothenthurm resigned from high-level sports in early May, about a month before his 39th birthday

In the case of Martin Grab, there are several suspicions that constitute a very serious suspicion.

Kranzfestsieg he won in 2012, at 33 years old. This year, April 22, he won the Zug Cantonal Festival with six victories against younger and much younger competitors. Triumph was celebrated as a miraculous resurrection.

– Grab took the preparation that takes a lot of time for the season. The season he broke up after just two stint crowns with the resignation – about three weeks after the trial led by Antidoping Switzerland without announcement. The most important festivals of the season, mountain wreath festivals and divisional festivals would not have taken place until mid-June.

– The prohibited substance identified is tamoxifen. It is mainly used in the fight against breast cancer. For doped athletes, this is not a performance promotion tool. But it disguises the use of anabolic steroids, muscle building supplements that can provide significant benefits to the patient. Even though the B sample was positive, Grab should, despite his current innocence protests, have great difficulty in explaining how a drug intended for a woman's body went into her body. body. Sabotage? But who should have an interest in sabotaging a vibrator that had its heyday a decade or so ago?

Since the end of 2015, the Swiss Schwinger Federation (ESV) has been a member of Swiss Olympic. Sovereignty over doping control in swinging has since become the umbrella organization and the fight against doping in Switzerland. Swingers must wait at any time for an unannounced check, as was done at Martin Grab.

Until the end of 2015, the ESV was only a paying customer of Antidoping Switzerland. Foundation staff conducted the checks. When and where should be controlled, but the ESV determined.

Swing sport, in which brute power and speed force play a leading role, relatively few cases of doping have been recorded or are known. Although swinging is predestined for doping and the temptation for athletes is great. It must be assumed that Schwinger has already succumbed to temptation, as we know today.

The first notable case concerns Abderhalden 2001. The exuberant brother Jörg Abderhalden denied doping despite overwhelming circumstantial evidence. He was suspended for 18 months. He resigned in 2004.

Thomas Wittwer, a Swiss confederate on three occasions, found traces of anabolic steroids in 2005. He is still the only one caught Schwinger, who admitted doping without further ado. The lock of two years meant the end of the career. Wittwer was already 33 years old in doping offenses.

Before the Fall Grab, Bruno Gisler's case was the most spectacular. Solothurner, then 30, was tested in 2013 at the Swiss Federal Festival of Burgdorf for the banned stimulant Nikethamid. Before the anti-doping commission of the northwestern Swiss federation, he came up with the adventurous explanation that he had confused two sprays in the medicine cabinet. The association took the half-year barrier the shortest, although the manufacturer said its drug did not contain nikethamide. The crown win of Burgdorf was removed Gisler.

The analogous sanction is to face Martin's grave. If he's transferred to Sample B, he should lose the victory of Zuger Fest and the two crown wins in his short last season. Then he will have stopped with 32 Crown triumphs instead of 33.

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