IRISH BOXER MICHAEL O’Reilly has been banned for four years from the sport, it has been confirmed, after he tested positive for methandienone.
The ban is backdated to when he failed the test, which means O’Reilly will be eligible to box again after 10 July 2020.
O’Reilly, who won a gold medal at the 2015 European Games in Baku, was part of the Irish team that travelled to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, but was provisionally suspended in the lead up to the event after news of his positive test was confirmed.
A statement issued this evening on behalf of the Irish Athletic Boxing Association and Sport Ireland read as follows:
“Sport Ireland and the Irish Athletic Boxing Association jointly confirm that the Irish Sport Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel has sanctioned Mr. Michael O’Reilly for the commission of an anti-doping rule violation. Mr. O’Reilly, an international level boxer who was part of the Irish boxing team for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, has received a period of ineligibility of 4 years for testing positive for methandienone. Mr. O’Reilly was tested on 11 July 2016. Mr. O’Reilly was notified of the positive test result on 4 August 2016 and he was provisionally suspended from 5 August 2016.
“On 5 August 2016 Mr. O’Reilly informed the Irish Sport Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel (the “Panel”) that he intended to appeal his provisional suspension and requested that the ‘B’ Sample be analysed. On 9 August 2016, the WADA accredited laboratory in Cologne confirmed the presence of methandienone in the ‘B’ Sample. Also on 9 August 2016, after receipt of detailed submissions from Sport Ireland regarding his appeal, Mr. O’Reilly withdrew the appeal and confirmed he was not contesting the substantive result of the tests. On the same date, through his solicitor, Mr. O’Reilly confirmed that he “freely admits that he unintentionally took a supplement that may have contained a prohibited substance”. He formally admitted the anti-doping rule violation by letter dated 23 August 2016 and indicated that he wished to engage in a consultation process with Sport Ireland.
“Following correspondence between the parties Mr. O’Reilly, in written submissions to Sport Ireland, confirmed that the supplement he had taken was ‘Falcon Labs Superdrive Testobooster Tech’. Mr. O’Reilly had not disclosed at the time of the test that he had taken the supplement. Mr O’Reilly provided an opened tub of the supplement in question to Sport Ireland. Samples of the opened tub and an unopened tub of ‘Falcon Labs Superdrive Testobooster Tech’ were tested by the WADA approved laboratory in Cologne which reported that while the product contained methandienone, the concentrations were not consistent with the timeline of events asserted by Mr. O’Reilly.
“Mr. O’Reilly requested a meeting with Sport Ireland when invited to comment on this and at that meeting Sport Ireland indicated that it intended to impose a sanction of 4 years. Mr. O’Reilly confirmed he did not accept this sanction and elected to refer the matter to the Panel to decide on sanction. A provisional hearing date was fixed for 11 April 2017 which was subsequently moved to the later date of 1 June 2017 at Mr. O’Reilly’s request to permit him to obtain an expert report.
“A timetable for exchange of documents was agreed and, while Mr. O’Reilly filed his submissions on time, he did not file an expert report nor did he indicate that he would be calling an expert witness. Mr. O’Reilly subsequently sought additional time for filing of his report and on 30 May 2017 the Panel adjourned the hearing until 5 October 2017 for this purpose.
Mr. O’Reilly produced an expert report on 22 September 2017 which Sport Ireland asserted was inadmissible due to it not being signed. On 5 October 2017, the Panel ruled that Mr. O’Reilly had until 13 October 2017 to produce a valid report and, if produced, Sport Ireland would have the opportunity to prepare its own report. The hearing was adjourned until December and, in this time, Mr. O’Reilly produced an admissible expert report with Sport Ireland commissioning its own expert report in response. The adjourned hearing therefore proceeded as scheduled on 7 December 2017.
“Having considered the evidence and submissions as made, the Panel produced its detailed findings on sanction. The Panel concluded that Mr. O’Reilly had “not discharged the burden of proving that his admitted anti-doping rule violation was not intentional” and accordingly imposed a 4 year period of ineligibility on him as is required by the Irish Sports Council Anti-Doping Rules 2015 (the “Rules”). It was also not satisfied that Mr. O’Reilly’s evidence disclosed any basis to reduce or eliminate that period. The Panel however was satisfied that Mr. O’Reilly’s admission was a timely admission as understood by Article 10.7.2 the Rules and therefore concluded that it was appropriate to backdate the period of ineligibility to commence on 11 July 2016, being the date that the test was taken.
“Mr. O’Reilly’s period of ineligibility will run up to and including 10 July 2020.”
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
If it was a tennis player he’d be back in action in about 18 months
@Catherine Sims:
If he was Russian he’d be back last week.
@Catherine Sims: if he was Russian he’d be…. well get away with it
@David Sinclair: Yeah – like there is no sportsmen banned from Russia. Did you slept last 10 years people ???
As soon as Billy Walsh left the Irish boxing team went down the tubes. It’s rare that one man can make such a difference but the display in the Olympics together with this, shows how badly needed was.
@prop joe: lol you haven’t a clue do you Joe
@Gareth: yeah, they are doing so well without him.
@prop joe: that’s harsh man on the years of effort the boxers put in. Obviously him leaving under the circumstances, but the circumstances and scrutiny on the team leading up to the Olympics just days before had a collective effect on the team, particularly Joe ward and Katie’s performances. And slagging them now is disingenuous and ignorant.
Sometimes I wonder how many sports stars, if any, have an operation like Lance Armstrong did where they aren’t being caught because of it. It seems to happen in the UFC and tennis, I wonder about football and rugby etc
@happy: definitely in football. But because there is such interest and money in the sport, they will never get done. You just have to shake your head and wonder why there were over 70 redacted names in the Operation Puerto case. A few cyclists names came out of the report because it was round the time of the Armstrong case. Then all of a sudden they froze every other name in the report, even though they physically still have the blood samples.
Not to mention around those years Spain win the Euro’s, and the World Cup, Real Madrid and Barcelona are the top teams in the world and Nadal was winning everything under the sun in tennis, and then suddenly he had a massive knee injury and is out for up to a year as the case is going through the media. Hmmm funny that.
@Jonathan Nolan: funny that a case that led to arrests in 2006 could lead you to thinking that it is related to European championship wins in 2010 and 2014 , World Cup win in 2012 and a dozen Grand Slam wins by Nadal in 2009 to 2017 . No positives ever received in 1000s of tests .
Nadal won his libel case against the French sports minister , and would win it against you too .
Is this also in his culture ?
@chinaski: We have greatest culture in the world – there is no second country so “agreeable” like us. We let our “allies” to rip us off, to use our lands, sea, airports, banks, we do whatever they want. How dare they to ban our sportsmen like that so ?!
Spent a year and a half dragging the arse out of it like all the cheats do.
@Shane Gleeson: slime
In the interest of equality, everyone athlete should take drugs, just to level the playing field.
4 years is a disgrace !!! Hope it doesn’t run him out the sport for good cause he’s 1 of the most talented boxers we’ve ever seen in Ireland.
@AL Thornton: Do the crime do the time, A drugs cheat , disgraced the country.
@AL Thornton: I know very little about this sport I do know if it’s proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the doping happened no matter it’s in China Russia or this Country then they should be gone. Reading some of the comments here you would think he took a packet of sweets.
@AL Thornton: your right it is a disgrace alright.
It should be life. 4 years backdated? Not enough. Cheats out.
@Samuel Karl Toland:
Who Supplies them with Drugs….
@AL Thornton: Hopefully it does run him out of the sport. That’s surely the only way to say good riddance to drugs cheats like him. 4 years is pittance.
@Mike: I’m all for banning cheats but there isn’t the same sanctions for cheats across all sports and all countries. It there was more uniformity around bans people wouldn’t be complaining. The fact is though he gets 4 years because he’s not a Russian or a wealthy well known tennis player. Bans should be for all cheats.
@AL Thornton: it should be a life ban.
@Gerry Murphy: as far as I know he took a protein shake from a pal at his boxing club but never checked with the Irish set up if the shake was ok for him to take. There was a small trace of a banned substance in it but it’s wasn’t performance enhancement
@AL Thornton: talent shouldn’t need drugs
@billy Dorney: But it needs supplements!
@AL Thornton: you’re naive
@Catherine Sims: In a perfect world, there would be uniformity in terms of sanctions against drugs cheats. Unfortunately that isn’t the case. It doesn’t mean that we can or should go easy on our cheats just because the Russians (who have zero credibility as a result) run a doping programme. We’re either for or against drugs in sport, it’s black or white.
What a shame…
Idiot. Should never be allowed play again.
@Sean Dilligan: does one play boxing?
@Minom Pnnomm: it’s a game and he plays it
@Alison Maguire: does one play boxing??
@Paul Reid: he plays a sports game called boxing
Dope