Athlete Bios
Skeleton
Lund took long road to the Olympics
Last Updated: Saturday, February 6, 2010 | 10:15 PM ET
New York Times for CBC Sports
American Zach Lund was in the top 10 in four of the first five World Cup events this season. (AFP/Getty Images)Zach Lund of the United States was ranked No. 1 in the world in the skeleton in 2006 when he tested positive for Propecia, an antibalding medication listed as a prohibited substance because its active ingredient, finasteride, can mask steroids like nandrolone and testosterone.
As a result, Lund was barred from the Olympics in Turin, Italy, that year and evicted from the athletes village on the first day of the Games after his final appeal was rejected.
Now, nearly four years later, Lund, 30, is back on course for his first Olympics. But his ride back has been anything but smooth.
After failing the drug test, Lund was suspended for a year, retroactive to the first event of the 2005-06 season. He returned to form during the 2006-07 season, when he won the World Cup title. He struggled a bit the next season, but still finished third in the World Cup standings and sixth at the world championships.
Finasteride was eventually dropped from the World Anti-Doping Agency's list of banned substances. And even though the court for arbitration in sport had said in 2006 that it thought that Lund had made an honest mistake and had not been trying to gain an illegal advantage, WADA, Lund said, ignored his request to clear his record before the 2008-09 season.
Lund was crestfallen. His did not train as hard. His performances plummeted. He finished last season ranked 11th in the world. "I could just really care less to be on tour," Lund said. "I had a negative attitude about everything. I didn't enjoy myself at all, I wasn't enjoying the sport, did not enjoy being around people. And it showed in my results."
But then Lund, a native of Salt Lake City who just missed out on the Olympics there in 2002, received a text message from a high school friend that told him in plain terms to stop playing the role of a victim. He also remembered a promise he made to his mother, Penny, before she died from skin cancer, that he would always follow his dream.
"I either needed to let it go or just quit the sport," Lund said. "Holding on to it and letting it have the negative effect it was having wasn't helping me."
Lund started training again in earnest and has made modest progress in his return this season. He opened the season with a fifth-place finish in Park City, Utah, and was in the top 10 in four of the first five World Cup events.
