Doping sleuths keep sunscreen from burning track stars

By EDDIE PELLS
AP National Writer

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Shortly after last year’s Olympics, the urine samples of some six dozen athletes came back with traces of a banned stimulant. Career-altering penalties loomed. But they were avoided thanks to some nimble sleuthing by antidoping scientists in the U.S. and Germany. The scientists discovered the stimulant could be found in an ingredient present in an over-the-counter sunscreen. Increasingly sensitive instruments designed to detect banned substances have the ability to pick up increasingly minuscule amounts of those substances in an athlete’s system. In some cases, athletes ingest them intentionally. But in a growing number of instances, the banned drugs enter their systems in completely unintentional ways. Like through sunscreen or contaminated food and prescription drugs.