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See Drugs in Sport: Boyle Suspended for 1 year
Dealing with this over the past couple of months has been so stressful that I am glad that the process is finally over. It is a horrible situation to be in. One where I was careless in not completely scrutinizing everything that I ingested, and having Ephedrine enter my system without me knowing. The Ephedrine was contained in, of all things, a herbal tea made by a reputable company. According to CCES rules, even if you did not intend to enhance sport performance, and prove that you did not intend to cheat, you must still be penalized for the presence of a banned substance.
The lesson that I have learned, and I hope that others will learn through my experience, is to not take anything for granted, do not make any assumptions, and most importantly, to be careful. I have been unfortunately a little bit too naïve. The CCES rules state that it is the athlete’s responsibility to know what he/she is taking. I feel, after all of this, that simply being careful does not seem to be good enough.
I am thankful for the silver lining, which is that through the process of a hearing, an independent arbitrator was satisfied that I did not intend to enhance sport performance, and reduced my initial sanction from 2 years to 1. I have received a great deal of support from key people in my life, which has made this a whole lot easier to deal with.
Anyone that knows me, knows how passionate I am about my sport, and how much respect I have for everyone involved. I would like to encourage anyone who has any questions to please e-mail me at Shariboyle@hotmail.com. I would like to extend a huge thank you to Ken Parker for offering to allow me to post a response to the announcement.
Shari Boyle
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