TWO prominent American athletes have failed drugs tests in the past week: Floyd Landis, winner of the Tour de France, and Olympic 100-metre champion Justin Gatlin. Things look bad for both men.
The test that they failed measures the ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone in urine. No one knows what, if anything, epitestosterone does, but while the overall level of testosterone in individuals can vary greatly, the testosterone to epitestosterone (TE) ratio is usually 1:1. A result of 4:1 or above requires further investigation.
Around 1 per cent of athletes naturally have a TE ratio over 4:1. Crucially, however, this…
