Gold Medal Removed

Jeff Adams, one of Canada’s foremost male wheelchair athletes, has not received fair treatment after his gold medal at the January, 1997, International Stoke-Mandeville Wheelchair Games was stripped from him.

Adams broke a world record in the 400-metre event and placed first. Later, after a gruelling day of preliminary events and finals, he was so dehydrated and ill that he accepted two pills from one of the medical staff. Although Adams assumed the medication was safe, and he took it after his competition, his subsequent drug test showed illegally high levels of caffeine.

Adams was never asked before the International Stoke-Mandeville Wheelchair Sports Federation to argue his case -- instead, the
ISMWSF based its decision to remove the gold medal on an interview Adams had with the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Medical Executive the next month at the winter Paralympics. Until the ISMWSF ruling at end of April, Adams could not accept motivational speaking engagements -- which is how he makes his living -- or compete or attend sports training clinics.

Adams filed a protest. "I’ve never given a positive test in 12 years," he says. However, his protest was denied, and the ISMWSF has refused to communicate with Adams any further on the issue.

The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport has been slow to support Adams, claiming a lack of evidence.