A bobsleigh pilot who trains in Calgary is appealing a 20-month suspension after testing positive for steroids.

Serge Despres, originally from Cocagne, N.B., tested positive for nandrolone, an anabolic steroid, last August, the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) said Tuesday.

Olympian Serge Despres told reporters Wednesday he's appealing his 20-month suspension.
(CBC)

At an arbitrator's hearing, the 29-year-old athlete lost his challenge of results of a urine test, and was suspended for 20 months.

"I've never knowingly taken any performance-enhancing drugs or any banned substances," Despres said at a Calgary news conference Wednesday.

"The positive test was caused by a contaminated supplement I was taking during the past summer and I'm here to state I am not a cheater."

Despres said his suspension should have only been one year, adding the supplement he bought in a local health-food store was recommended by his team's dietician.

The bobsledder said tests showed he had 2.9 nanograms per millimetre of nandrolone in his system, compared to the legal limit of 2.0 naturally produced by the human body.

Serge Despres competes in the four-man bobsleigh event at the Turin 2006 Winter Olympics.
(Eric Feferberg/AFP/Getty Images)

"My case is possibly the lowest recorded positive test in the history of sports drug testing," he told reporters.

Nandrolone is on the list of prohibited substances by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which works to prevent doping in sport.

The CCES said it's likely Despres took the steroid accidentally through a supplement that didn't list trace elements of nandrolone as an ingredient.

But centre officials pointed out the case shows the risks involved in taking supplements of any kind.

Despres's 20-month suspension will be over in time for him to compete in the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, but he will not be allowed to train with his teammates during that time.

Despres finished in the Top 20 in both the two- and four-man bobsleigh races in the 2006 Olympics.