LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — British wheelchair basketball player Simon Gibbs lost an appeal against a two-year ban for testing positive for the party drug mephedrone.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport says Gibbs couldn’t prove that a friend spiked his drink with the banned stimulant in February 2010 when it was widely known as “legal ecstasy.”
CAS rejected the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation’s appeal that the ban imposed by Britain’s anti-doping authority was too harsh. CAS says the World Anti-Doping Code allows reduced penalties for certain substances only when athletes prove how they ingested it.
UK Anti-Doping, the British doping authority, said Wednesday that Gibbs was banned through March 25, 2012. That’s five months before the London Paralympics begin.
