‘Absolute hell’: Full toll of Bol drugs shambles

Speaking on Nine’s Today, Seebohm said she felt for Bol.

“It is crushing on an athlete and especially being so close to Paris,” she said.

“All athletes right now are preparing for Paris and have that preparation on board and ready to go and to have that come through is just crushing for any athlete and I can imagine the last month has been absolute hell for Peter. It’s actually really upsetting that they come through and tell you your A-sample is positive but then your B-sample is not.

“Why wasn’t the B test done as well when the A was done? That way he wasn’t put through this whole mind-boggling last month when he wasn’t able to train?”

The three-time Olympic gold medallist said the whole process was a disaster.

“I have never heard of that kind of result before,” she explained.

“I don’t understand what that means. I don’t know if it means that his A and B were just so different because – I don’t know. How do you get it so wrong? How does your first test be so positive and your next test is atypical because they don’t really know what is going on with it?

Bol’s lawyer slams drug test ‘disgrace’

“So I don’t really understand how there can be such a difference between the same urine. It is the same test done on the day. It is not two different tests. You put some of your urine in A and some of your urine in B. How can they be so different?”

Sport Integrity Australia noted in a statement that an ATF “is not the same as a negative test result” and that it required further investigation.

That was met with derision by Bol’s lawyer, Peter Greene, who told Nine’s Today that the process is flawed.

“This whole thing that Sport Integrity Australia released a statement essentially still trying to cast a cloud over him, it’s a disgrace in my opinion,” he said.

“Let’s be clear, an atypical finding is the same as a negative finding in one very important respect. Neither one provides any evidence that Peter did anything wrong.

“That’s what everyone needs to understand.”

Bol investigation ongoing despite lifted suspension

Greene pointed out that an ATF is a relatively frequent occurrence.

“There are many atypical findings every day in the anti-doping world,” he explained.

“They don’t mean anything as it relates to actually being charged with an anti-doping rule violation. It means something atypical or not completely within the norm.”

He said Bol had not been given any laboratory documents to allow him to explain what might have caused the ATF.

“Peter is innocent. He never took anything. They can say whatever they want. They have no evidence that he did anything wrong,” he said.

“And they are never going to get any evidence because he didn’t. So I don’t care what they say.”

Greene said Bol had been badly let down by the whole process.

“The anti-doping world is looking after their own interests. They are supposed to look after the interests of athletes.

“I have done this stuff for almost 20 years. They don’t look after the interests of the athletes. They will circle the wagons and protect their own every time. That’s what they are doing here.

“Let’s be clear. They are the ones that leaked this when it never should have been leaked. I am not sure who it was, whether it was Sport Integrity Australia or Athletics Australia. It doesn’t matter from our perspective. It never should have been leaked, never should have been released.

“All they should have said was the B did not confirm the A. That’s it. There’s nothing else. There is no evidence that he did anything wrong. That statement is failing to acknowledge that they messed up the whole thing from the beginning. They are clearly trying to cover their tracks.”

Greene confirmed he and Bol were yet to decide if they’ll take legal action over the matter, although he conceded the 28-year-old’s focus needed to be on the track in the lead-up to Paris in 2024.

“What an atypical finding does is it triggers additional testing. Nothing more. That’s all an atypical finding normally does,” he said.

“Normally an athlete doesn’t even know they have an atypical finding. They may never know, and certainly it’s not public. There are atypical findings every day, where they go and do more target testing. That’s it. So, the fact that they continue to just publicly have this case before all of Australia is just sad, really.”

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