Olympic show jumping champion Steve Guerdat‘s provisional suspension after two of his horses from May competition tested positive for banned substances was lifted Monday due to scientific evidence suggesting the likelihood of food contamination.
It was announced last Tuesday that Guerdat, one of two Swiss gold medalists at London 2012, rode horses in a May competition in France that ended up testing positive for banned substances codeine and oripavine and the controlled substance morphine.
“The presence in all these samples of oripavine, which is not found in any veterinary products, suggests that this could be contamination, but obviously we still have to follow standard procedure,” International Equestrian Federation secretary General Sabrina Zeender said in a press release Tuesday.
In three 2014 cases involving oripavine and morphine, all were deemed highly likely to be the case of contamination, and the provisional suspensions were lifted by a federation tribunal by the end of the year.
Guerdat is tied for third in the jumping world rankings.
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