Berard tested positive for nandrolone

[WHEATMAN]

TSN.ca Staff

1/19/2006 6:32:40 PM


National Hockey League defenceman Bryan Berard tested positive for a banned substance as part of drug testing for the Olympics.

Sources say Berard, who was invited to the U.S. summer Olympic evaluation camp and therefore eligible for Olympic testing, tested positive for the substance nandrolone, an anabolic steroid which is on the IOC banned substance list.

A positive test means that Berard is ineligible for any international competition for the next two years. The test will not impact on the Olympics in February as Berard was not selected to the U.S. team.

The positive Olympic test will have no impact on his current standing or status within the National Hockey League.

The test was apparently conducted in October or November with the results being made known to Berard in December.

Sources say the NHL was made aware of the positive test in December. Sources also suggest that Berard voluntarily went to the league in late December and underwent league sanctioned testing, which came back negative for any banned substances.

Sources say Berard attributed the positive test to a supplement he was taking in off-season training.

Berard would only be sanctioned by the NHL if he tests positive within the joint testing program of the NHL and NHL Players Association which began last Sunday.

[The_Vulk]

As the media is reporting, Berard will have the distinction of being the FIRST NHL player that tested positive to a banned substance (regardless that it was not the NHL itself that did the testing).

Of the 250 tests administered this year on players eligible for Olympic teams, Berard was the only one (so far) to has been tested as positive. Don't know how many of those were NHL players, but it sure does not add up to the numbers Pound claimed were using drugs in the NHL.

[LifelongChiefsFan]

Kind of nice actually to see Berard own up to his mistake rather than getting the old, I didn't do it or did it but didn't know it etc.