An eminent Greek hematologist hired by the Athens anti-doping lab to analyze cases like the one involving U.S. Olympic champion cyclist Tyler Hamilton blamed the International Olympic Committee and the lab director for botching the handling of what he called a “dirty story.”
In exclusive e-mail and telephone interviews Friday with the Tribune, Dr. George Paterakis said he was breaking confidentiality on the incident because he and other scientists involved “are so offended we feel we have been used.”
Paterakis said he had reported to lab director Costas Georgakopoulos “a crystal-clear” case of blood doping on the “A” part of coded sample number 6825 when it was analyzed Aug. 19. Paterakis said he expected to be asked to analyze the “B” sample for confirmation but never was.
The IOC, which alone can match codes to names, has identified the sample as Hamilton’s.
Paterakis said he had received an e-mail from the World Anti-Doping Agency in late August saying it never was made aware of the case, in which Hamilton allegedly boosted his oxygen-carrying red blood cells by transfusing blood from another person.
“We provided crystal-clear evidence, and it was mishandled from that point,” Paterakis said. “We reported the first positive in history for this kind of doping, and it was not followed up as it should have been.”
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Georgakopoulos said in a telephone interview Friday, before the Tribune spoke with Paterakis, that he would not comment on specific cases. IOC medical commission director Arne Ljungqvist of Sweden said Friday the case slipped through the cracks at the IOC partly because the lab report the IOC received Aug. 22 labeled it a negative.
A source familiar with the case said Petrakis’ report to the lab director called the sample “suspicious for BT (blood transfusion),” but the lab report sent to the IOC called it “negative” with an asterisk saying, “suspicions of blood transfusion.”
“It is a lie to report that sample as just suspicious,” Paterakis said.
After those suspicions provoked no immediate reaction from the IOC, the Athens lab made the now controversial decision to freeze the “B” sample. That later made it impossible to declare a positive on the grounds Hamilton allegedly had boosted his oxygen-carrying capacity with a transfusion of someone else’s blood. Thus the IOC cannot strip the gold medal from Hamilton, who maintains he is “100 percent innocent.”
Michael Ashenden, the Australian scientist who helped develop the test for such transfusions, nevertheless believes Hamilton should give up his medal because a sample collected Sept. 11 by the international cycling federation showed the same evidence of blood doping in “A” and “B” analysis.
“The facts speak for themselves,” Ashenden said. “On Aug. 19, he had a sample with evidence of a transfusion. A few weeks later, another sample was collected, and Tyler Hamilton’s team announced it showed evidence of a transfusion. The transfused blood will remain in the body for weeks. Do we have to reincarnate Einstein to connect the dots?”
The international federation still can act on its test, which could result in a two-year suspension for the 33-year-old from Marblehead, Mass.
Ljungqvist said he was unaware there was a potential problem with Hamilton’s test until “about Sept. 10,” when he was forwarded e-mails from a number of people familiar with the “A” sample analysis. One e-mail was from Paterakis.
By then, Ljungqvist said, the lab had decided for reasons that are unclear that the “A” sample was positive. Attempts to analyze the “B” sample Tuesday in the Lausanne, Switzerland, lab were futile because it had been frozen, causing the whole blood to break down.
Georgakopoulos said he froze the samples according to a protocol that had been agreed upon six months earlier by the IOC, the Athens Olympic Organizing Committee and WADA. He said samples declared negative were to be frozen after 48 hours.
Paterakis said he repeatedly made it clear to lab officials whole blood samples should not be frozen. Ljungqvist said there had been no agreement to freeze such samples.