Should Andreea Raducan have lost her gold medal at the Olympics?

I disagree with the ruling of the IOC. If they determined it gave her no edge, then she should have kept the medal. I'm sure her coach was looking out for her best interest of health, and not the ingrediants in the over the counter medicine. It would be a completley different case if it had been a persciption medicine

Her only mistake was putting too much trust in her doctor.

I think that their stance is ridiculous (if that level of psuedoephedrine would give no advantage, why ban it?) Given their ridiculous stance, I think their ruling is correct.

I was surprised by their ruling since they issued the statement indicating the pseudoephedrine gave her no advantage over the other gymnasts. In fact, according to Raducan, it made her a little woozy and she still won. Maybe you need to be drunk to be a good gymnast.

The doctor shouldn't have given her something containing pseudoephedrine. He should have been familiar with the rules (which I think are ridiculous). But since it didn't give her any competitive advantage, I think she should've been able to keep the medal.

i think i understand the stance and the ruling from the perspective that olympic athletes, coaches, doctors, etc..., know coming in about the medication rules. it isn't like this is something out of left field. they know they are stringent.
the IOC has a huge # of athletes to test and track and the rules are made black and white for that reason. if they allow gray areas they will run into a great # of problems....... i'm sure this is how they see it.
it is unfortunate for her but her physician and coach should know better.

I don't care. One of my buddies came up with an interesting proposal for this kind of thing. Have two competitions, one with all drugs banned, and one where athletes have carte blanche to use any drugs they want.

ridiculous.....give her the fukkin medal back!

Any athlete could say something like that, therefore they're just making an example of her and making sure that other people don't try to get away with that kind of stuff in the future. It's not like they took away all her medals.

There are other cold medicines available that were not banned. She, or her coach, chose a stimulant on purpose.

I understand where they are coming from . Due however
to the fact that she did not intentionally, and knowingly
take the drug, but it was in a over the counter cold pill given to her by her Doctor her Doctor should be held responsible not her. It was said it did not effect her performance.
Many foods as well as medicines contain ingredients that may be unknowingly by user a banned substance. A person was tested positive for Opium after eating a Roast Beef Sandwich in a restaurant which happened to have Poppy seeds in it. He did not know it. Often rolls are sold as Assorted and do not indicate kinds of seeds on them. He was excused. In United States many foods and medicines do not list ingredients below a certain amount on the containers so you do not know everything in it.
They should look at the persons life style and beliefs, and intentions. The test should be given before athletes take part in an event so Dreams are not dashed after a Medal is Won, and the represented country is not insulted and lose face. What happens then when the athlete goes home to the athlete after the Medal they won is taken away ?
Should every one stop taking over the counter cold medicine ? Eating foods because they may contain a drug .
Should over the counter medicines contain illegal drugs ? Foods ? Should the labeling standard be improved?

I believe she should keep her Medal.

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That poppy seed story is a bit misleading. The amount of "opium" in the type of poppy seed used on rolls (which is from a different poppy than that used for opium) would only show up as a very very trace amount. It stays in your system for a day or so, and then it's gone. Most doctors would know to ask about that if they even noticed the trace amount.

Pseudoephedrine (commonly sold under the name Sudafed in the States) offers no enhancement at all to anyone doing anything unless they took a huge amount of it (in which case it would probably kill them or put them in a coma). As I stated before, the more likely effect is drowsiness or dizziness, which is what Raducan claims to have experienced.

If the athlete was given the preparation withouth her knowledge, she should keep the medal. If I was in charge of the Rumanian Government, I would have a Platinum medal minted for her!

That is so sad. She's worked hard for years to get that medal, and they just took it away from her because she took cold medicine that her doc. gave her. I wonder what that doctor had to say for himself??

There's no reason she should have taken the medication. Both she and the coach should have known better.

I'd be really disturbed if I'd gotten the silver. Now I'd have the gold but I'd always know that I hadn't really earned it. I'd have been able to display the silver medal proudly but not the gold.

The Romanian government is having a lot of problems with doping athletes. Either four or five of its medalists (not counting Raducan) were kicked out and stripped of medals for taking banned substances. The entire weight-lifting team was banned, and several coaches got the boot, too.

He got kicked out, too. Raducan did get to keep her other two medals, though.

Good point. I hadn't thought of that. It will be especially weird because the new gold- and silver-medalists are both on Raducan's team, so they will see each other all the time.

I think they should have been a little more lenient this time.

Thats good to hear.

At a guess "Oh fudge I've been banned for four years" for one

Isn't the major reason drugs such as this are banned that they can be used to mask other rather more serious drugs?

we all could have made that same mistake
and the (IOC's should think about that)

I don't think pseudoephedrine can be used to mask anything bad. I could be wrong, but I haven't heard of anything.

I can't believe that with all the publicity regarding banned substances that any athlete or coach can claim ignorance of the rules!

Neither one of them claimed ignorance of the rules. They claimed they didn't know the medicine contained a banned substance. They never even thought about it. She had a head cold, so the team doctor gave her an over-the-counter cold remedy. Simple as that.

Plus, it not only DIDN'T enhance her performance, but she actually got drowsy and STILL managed to win the Gold! Of course she could keep it!

It sounds like they're saying she should have known better. If that's actually true, I support their ruling. What was up with her butt, anyway?

Her butt?

Wasn't she the one with the third butt-cheek? Perhaps I'm confusing her with another Romanian.

I haven't heard of that one. Do you have a reference I can see?

The options were a little confusing. She should have kept the medal.