CODE Sports Investigations: How Australian marathon runner Cassie Fien got caught in doping web

It’s not just cynical drug cheats who get caught out, but plenty of innocent athletes get busted too. Marathon runner Cassie Fien opens up on he brutal story, likening testing positive to death.

It’s not just cynical drug cheats that get caught out by anti-doping’s strict rules.

Plenty of innocent athletes get busted too - often without doing anything wrong.

Australian marathon runner Cassie Fien is one of those unlucky athletes.

She was banned in early 2018 after testing positive to a prohibited substance that she ingested entirely by accident.

Fien copped a reduced suspension after being able to prove that she wasn’t trying to cheat, but it still had a devastating impact on her wellbeing and led her to giving up her dream of representing Australia.

“It was so tough because I didn’t know if I even had a future,” Fien said.

“So I isolated myself, I didn’t go anywhere, I didn’t do anything, it was an absolutely horrible time.

“When something is your identity, when something that brings you joy in the world and motivates you to get up in the morning, when that’s gone, it’s almost like a death.”

After undergoing a routine test in 2017, Fien was notified that her sample had shown traces of Higenamine, which had only just been added to the worldwide list of prohibited substances.

Unknown to her, the banned ingredient was contained in an all-natural supplement she had bought over the counter at a health store, but was listed as Nandina Fruit Extract.

A stickler for the rules, Fien had already checked the product against the Australian Anti-Doping Agency’s list of dangerous products.

Cassie Fien was banned in 2018

And she had also checked the ingredients against the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Prohibited List.

As neither was on the list, she assumed it was safe but had no way of knowing she was ingesting a contaminated supplement.

Yet, she still received a nine-month ban because the rules state that anyone found with a banned substance in their body has to receive a penalty.

“They are the rules, but in my case, I don’t know what more I could have done,” Fien said.

“When you think of doping, you think of someone injecting EPO or going on the black market and buying something, but that’s now what happened here.

“I bought it in a physical store in Australia, not overseas or online, and I triple checked all the ingredients and nothing came up.”

The impact the positive test had on Fien’s wellbeing was mortifying.

She collapsed in shock and had to be taken to hospital when she was first told the news.

And even after the investigators found it was an innocent mistake, it irreparably damaged her mental health and love of running, which she took up seriously after she lost her father at a young age through a tragic accident.

“Even though I didn’t think I did anything wrong, I still felt embarrassed and that I had brought shame to my family and my friends,” Fien said.

“That’s not me, that’s not my personality but I was in this vortex of just nothingness and it was really hard.”

The case also had a bearing on the investigators.

Fien now helps Sport Integrity Australia spread the message to young athletes about the hidden risks of supplements so they never have to go through what she did.

“It changed my perspective so I really just run for now,” she said.

“I don’t think I ever reached my full potential so I’ll never know what I was capable of, but I’m just grateful that I still can physically run and still can enjoy it on a just a different level now.”

Originally published as CODE Sports Investigations: How Australian marathon runner Cassie Fien got caught in doping web