Doping lawyer for strength sports
Your specialist in anti-doping law for strength sports
Doping is a particularly significant problem in the fitness, bodybuilding and powerlifting sector. NADO Vlaanderen reported that as many as 21.1% of all positive doping samples came from fitness centres. For bodybuilding this figure stood at 12.9% and for powerlifting at 11.1%, compared with an average of just 2.5% across all sports.
Timely and sound legal advice can make the difference between a full suspension and a significantly reduced penalty. Everest Sports Law assists you from the first notification through to the final decision.
Free consultationWhat a doping lawyer for strength sports does for you
Anti-doping proceedings
A positive doping result carries a standard four-year suspension, along with a fine and an order to pay procedural costs. Depending on the circumstances and the degree of fault, the penalty can be significantly reduced, but only if you act in time. Everest Sports Law thoroughly reviews your file and assists you from the first notification through to the final decision of the competent anti-doping tribunal or the CAS.
Disciplinary law
Besides doping cases, athletes in strength sports may face other disciplinary proceedings: disqualifications, disputes over competition results, conflicts with federations or officials. Everest Sports Law guides you through all disciplinary proceedings before the competent bodies of the relevant sports federations, both nationally and internationally.
Agreements & liability
As a bodybuilder, powerlifter or fitness instructor, you enter into agreements with coaches, supplement suppliers, sponsors and event organisers. Everest Sports Law negotiates and reviews your contracts and assists you when a counterparty fails to meet its obligations. We also analyse liability issues relating to supplements or training, for example where a positive doping test results from contaminated products.
Preventive advice
Knowing what you may and may not use is the first step in doping prevention. Everest Sports Law provides legal advice to athletes on the application of the prohibited list, the procedure for Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUE) and the risks associated with the use of supplements and certain medication. A well-informed athlete is a better-protected athlete.
Supplements, prescriptions and the fitness sector
In strength sports most files start with a product that was bought in good faith.
A supplement is not a safe harbour
Products sold in a gym or online can contain substances from the prohibited list without naming them on the label. Contamination happens often, and on its own it does not excuse the athlete. What can shorten a sanction is proof of what you took, when you took it and where it came from. Keep the tub, the batch number and the receipt, and have the product analysed before you build a defence on it.
Medication and the therapeutic use exemption
A medicine your doctor prescribes can still contain a prohibited substance. Where the treatment is genuinely necessary, a therapeutic use exemption can be applied for, in principle before the substance is used and in urgent cases afterwards. The application only works when a proper medical file supports it. We assess whether an exemption is open to you and we prepare the request together with your doctor.
Recreational athletes are not outside the rules
Testing in the fitness sector reaches people who never enter a competition. Whether the anti-doping rules bind you depends on the federation you belong to, on the decree that applies in your community, and on the setting in which the test was taken. Answer that question before you reply to a notification, because it decides which procedure and which deadlines apply to you.
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