Michael Brinegar
Whether or not Michael Brinegar’s four-year ban from USA Swimming is upheld or overturned, he says his fans haven’t seen the last of him.
The Columbus native is planning to stick around through 2028 and possibly beyond in the wake of Friday’s ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) that he was guilty of blood doping in 2022.
Brinegar, who was cleared by an independent arbitrator in 2023 before the US Anti-Doping Agency appealed the ruling, declared his innocence in a statement on Saturday. On Sunday, he outlined his innocence through what he says was a flawed process.
In his outline, Brinegar listed several key factors that may have led to a finding blood that were higher than permissible. Chief among those factors is Brinegar’s assertation that after he contracted COVID in early June of 2022, his blood values would have dropped during the illness and then increased as his body recovered, demonstrating the higher reticulolyte percentage in the sample taken in late July of that year.
The USADA disputed that claim, saying, “If Mr. Brinegar did suffer from anemia / lowered hemoglobin values as a result of his COVID disease, then his hemoglobin values would have dropped far below any of the values seen in his ABP profile, and then his reticulocyte percentage would have gone up dramatically as his body attempted to recover from the COVID-induced anemia / lowered hemoglobin values.”
Brinegar, who withdrew from the World Championships in June 22 because of the COVID, disagrees, saying, “USADA dismisses the possibility that I developed anemia after contracting COVID-19 simply because they didn’t take any blood samples during the relevant time period. How can they make such a claim without any concrete evidence? This is particularly outrageous given that it was USADA and anti-doping agencies like it that had complete control over when and how many ABP blood samples are collected. For USADA to not collect ABP blood samples at all during this time period and then argue that those blood values if it had bothered to collect them would support its blood doping scenarios is egregious.”
The USADA then stated, “Irrespective of whether the athlete developed anemia after his COVID infection in early June, Sample 9, collected on July 20, 2022, shows no signs of anemia – HGB is in the normal range both for the athlete (based on his upper and lower reference ranges) and for healthy males.”
Brinegar responded, “This assertion contradicts the expert’s own earlier admission that by July 20, 2022, my blood values would likely have returned to normal even if I had been anemic earlier. They also ignored the effect of hydration on my blood values. Experts have found hydration levels can significantly affect blood values. When dehydrated, hemoglobin levels can appear higher; when overhydrated, they can appear lower.”
When Sample 11 was collected later that summer, Brinegar appeared dehydrated. That, he said, likely caused the increased hemoglobin levels in that sample.
Another factor cited by Brinegar is that the USADA ignored the effects of his training and detraining periods. He said that after contracting COVID, he took a complete break from training from May 28 through July 17, 2022. He then gradually resumed light training leading up to a competition in Canada in late August of that year. Brinegar said his hemoglobin increase of 10.25% between Samples 10 and 11 is a result of his plasma volume reduction during his period of reduced training.
Brinegar also sais that the USADA did not follow World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) guidelines on refrigeration samples. He said Sample 11 was found in a hot car for one day, three hours, 36 minutes, and as a result, that cannot be dismissed as a contributing factor the the elevated HGB.
USADA also advanced the theory that Brinegar used an ESA, such as Erythropoietin (EPO) in July and/or August 2022. But at that time, he was not training or lightly training. Because of that, along with the fact that Brinegar did not compete for three months during that summer, the independent arbitrator ruled in his favor.
Brinegar swam in the preliminaries of the 400-meter freestyle and 800 freestyle in the first three days of the Olympic Trials in Indianapolis. An Olympic qualifier in the 800 freestyle and 1,500 freestyle in 2021, he was seeded third in this year’s 1,500 freestyle.
But on Friday, on the eve of the 1,500 freestyle prelims, he learned of the four-year ban that would keep him out of national and international competition.
Brinegar’s mother Jennifer said on Sunday evening that there is legal recourse through the Swiss Tribunal, but that they likely won’t determine how to proceed until they receive the full written decision from the CAS.
