Raelene Boyle backs Peter Bol in drug test fight

For Peter Bol the last few weeks have been a ‘nightmare’ but an Olympic great says she believes he is innocent.

Peter Bol faces a battle to clear his name. Picture: Getty Images

It was early morning on January 20 when the first hint dropped that Peter Bol’s positive drug test was about to be made public.

On that Friday morning on 3AW radio’s rumour file segment, host Ross Stevenson dropped a bombshell that a big-name athlete was in trouble.

“My rumour, yes, I am bringing the sad news that a high-profile Australian sportsman has returned a test, a positive test to a banned substance,” Stevenson told Melbourne listeners. “His B sample is not back yet, so at this stage it is just the A sample, it should be noted, he himself, vehemently denies it.”

At 4.51pm on that same day, Athletics Australia released a statement which said Bol’s A sample had returned a positive test for synthetic erythropoietin (EPO). Bol then posted a statement to his social media confirming the explosive result and that it had been “leaked”.

“I wish that the results of my A sample had not been leaked, but there is nothing I can do about that,” the Olympic star posted to social media.

“To say it one more time: I am innocent and have not taken this substance as I was accused.

“I have NEVER, in my life purchased, researched, possessed, administered, or used synthetic EPO or any other prohibited substance, and never will.”

Since this “nightmare” began, Bol has had some high-profile supporters. Olympic legend Raelene Boyle is one who believes that he is innocent.

Boyle, who was cheated out of two gold medals by drug-tainted East German athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games, has faith that Bol is a clean athlete.

“When that initial test came through … it was borderline positive, and now it’s confusing that it’s atypical but I mean, I believe him (that he did not take EPO and is innocent),” Boyle told The Weekend Australian. “I just hope and pray. I don’t know. I really just hope that this all comes up for the better for Peter. I hope this doesn’t tarnish his career or his life. I know it’s going to affect him for the rest of his life but I really hope this doesn’t tarnish or affect his career in any way.

“I believe him … I look at this one from the upside and not the downside. Australia knows my opinion on drugs and I am not getting the vibe on this one.”

Australian athletics great Raelene Boyle. Picture: Brad Fleet

This week Bol’s B sample result returned “atypical” and the athlete triumphantly proclaimed this proved his innocence – that it did “exonerate” him.

However, Sports Integrity Australia released a statement hours later which said Bol’s B sample was “not the same as a negative test result” and they would continue to investigate him.

Bol still has a fight on his hands to formally clear his name.

An “atypical finding” is defined in the World Anti-Doping Code as “a report from a laboratory or other WADA-approved entity which requires further investigation as provided by the International Standard for Laboratories or related Technical Documents prior to the determination of an Adverse Analytical Finding”.

While that atypical result has allowed Bol’s provisional ban to be lifted, as he is back on the track to train and compete, his name is yet to be formally cleared as SIA continues to explore whether any anti-doping violations were committed.

In the weeks since Bol was formally told on January 10, when he was visited by SIA investigators, that he had tested positive to EPO, the Olympian has been living, in his words, “a nightmare”.

As part of the investigation Bol had his laptop, phone and iPad seized and was not allowed to compete or train until this week. He is now aiming for the world championships in August and the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Over the past few weeks the Bol camp has been pursuing every avenue to clear his name, including booking a lie-detector test and looking into having the runner’s kidneys tested by a specialist to see if he naturally produced high levels of EPO.

Bol ran his way into Australia’s hearts at the Tokyo Olympics last year. It was an extraordinary moment for someone who in his early teenage years wasn’t even aware that athletics competitions existed. When Bol was 15, a teacher sat him down to ask him if he wanted to compete seriously in athletics. Bol was said to reply: ‘‘What do you mean … I can do it for a sport?”

Within a couple of years he won the 800m at the Australian Junior Championships.

At the Tokyo Games, Bol captured the attention of the country when he was the first Australian to reach an 800m final at the Olympics since 1968. He led from the front in that final before finishing a gallant fourth. More than 3 million television viewers tuned in to watch Bol race.

He has given back repeatedly to the community, working with young people to get them in the sport. For these efforts he was rewarded with a Young Australian of the Year nomination, which he later withdrew from because of the doping violation.

Boyle says his influence on younger Australians cannot be overstated.

“He’s a beautiful example to the kids in this country,” Boyle said. “Not only the Sudanese kids, but all the kids to get off your bottom and do something positive. And if you do that you can actually get somewhere in life.”

Boyle isn’t the only one hoping that Bol will be able to formally exonerate himself.

His coach of the last eight years, Justin Rinaldi, who guides the runner when he is not working full-time at a bank, is banking on good news for Bol.

It’s Rinaldi who forked out $2000 of his own money to pay for a polygraph test for Bol, which was due to take place at 1pm on Wednesday but the team later cancelled this idea at the last minute on legal advice (Rinaldi didn’t get the money back).

Despite all the drama, Bol is doing well, Rinaldi said.

“Obviously it’s been challenging but he’s stayed positive, probably more positive than me. And I’m probably just more angry that this is going on because I know he’s done nothing wrong, but I can just see his reputation getting tarnished,” Rinaldi said.

This week Rinaldi told The Weekend Australian he “cheekily” asked AA CEO Nick Bromley to take a lie detector test alleging that he had leaked Bol’s result.

Rinaldi also said this week that he had written to the AA board calling for Bromley to be stood down pending the outcome of the investigation.

Bromley said he had “no reason” to even contemplate standing down.

“I can tell you quite frankly that we have no grounds whatsoever to think any leak came from AA,” Bromley told Nine Newspapers.

There’s been a lot of talk, on and off the record, about how Bol’s A sample was made public on January 20.

It was unusual that Bol’s positive A result was made public before his B sample had returned.

There has been finger-pointing from the Bol camp, like Rinaldi, that it was leaked early to smear the star.

“We are disappointed with the amount of information that’s been leaked,” Rinaldi said.

“You know, he may or may not have lost the Young Australian Year Award because of it.

“It is just little things like that, that he’s worked hard for, that can never be recovered.”

Bol’s lawyer Paul Greene, the founder of Global Sports Advocates which has represented athletes from all around the world, also slammed the public leaking of Bol’s positive A sample as a “disgrace”.

He accused sporting authorities of “trying to cover their tracks”.

The US lawyer criticised Sport Integrity Australia and Athletics Australia for making a statement about Bol’s positive A sample on January 20. He argued they should have waited until his B sample came back.

“It is a disgrace in my opinion,” Greene said at the time. He also said the atypical finding exonerated Bol.

“I will say it before and I will say it again. An atypical finding is the same as a negative. Neither one provides any evidence that Peter did anything wrong.”

So what happens next?

If the SIA finds that Bol did not commit an anti-doping violation, they will close the investigation. But if found guilty, under the WADA code Bol faces a ban of up to four years.

And if that is the case, there is likely to be legal action from Bol’s side.

On January 22, Greene questioned the interpretation of the laboratory data which now has the Australian 800m champion fighting for his career.

Greene says it was a marginal call for Bol to have been issued with a EPO positive test.

“EPO naturally occurs in every one of us (and) it’s not like synthetic EPO has a different chemical make-up than regular EPO,” Greene said.

“Sometimes you are right on the edge (of legal EPO levels) and it would appear from the initial report (with Bol) that … it was a very very close call as to whether they were going to report this.”

The only thing that remains certain in all this, is that Bol’s race to clear his name is not over.