Two college football players at the University of Laval were suspended after testing positive for anabolic steroids adding to the list of football players that have recently been suspended from Canadian universities. Linebacker Michaël Abraham and offensive lineman Steeve Vachon were suspended for two years for doping violations.
Athletes from the University of Waterloo, McGill University, Acadia University and the University of Windsor have all been caught using steroids over the past several months. The use of anabolic steroids by football players clearly is not restricted by geographic boundaries.
The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) has increased the number and frequency of random and off-season anti-doping testing in response to the Waterloo football scandal of 2010. The Waterloo football scandal originated with a steroid bust involving a single player who was busted with thousands of vials of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone last year. This sequence of events led to the largest steroid investigation in the history of Canadian college football by the CCES. The investigation resulted in nine analytical and non-analytical positive doping test results and the suspension of the entire football team for one year.
The spate of positive steroid tests for Canadian collegiate football players is disappointing news to athletic administrators. However, they are doing their best to spin the results with the most favorable interpretation possible. Marg McGregor, the CEO of Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), found the silver lining by noting that at least two entire football teams – the University of Calgary and Wilfrid Laurier University – successfully passed all the anti-doping tests administered by the CCES.
Marg McGregor, the chief executive officer of Canadian Interuniversity Sport, was disappointed to hear that two CIS athletes tested positive for steroid use.
“Although extremely disappointed with today’s announcement, we are cautiously encouraged that during the high-risk out-of-competition period since the November 2010 Vanier Cup, 285 players were tested, and less than one per cent have tested positive, which is within the world average.
“We are also encouraged that the entire football teams from the University of Calgary and Wilfrid Laurier University tested clean during that time.”
Each University of Laval football players tested positive for a single anabolic steroid metabolite. The substances detected in the urinalysis were 19-norandrosterone and methandienone which are often indicative of the use of nandrolone and Dianabol aka methandrostenolone.
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