Bye bye Zack

Zäck gets two-year ban
This report filed - September 22, 2006
Timothy Carlson
Jurgen Zack was handed a two-year suspension by the German Triathlon Union (DTU) on September 13, effectively censoring the already retired Ironman superstar on his way out the door.

Zack, 40, had said the July 2006 Ironman European Championship in Frankfurt would be the last race of an illustrious career that included five wins at the former Ironman Europe in Roth, Ironman Australia, Powerman Zofingen and a second place at Ironman Hawaii in 1997.

However, days before his planned Frankfurt farewell, Zack pulled out of the race and announced on his website that an A-sample from a July 7 drug test had tested positive for the banned metabolite etiocholanone, a prohormone of testosterone and androstenedione. At the time, Zack said he was "shocked" and that the substance was likely found in contaminated food supplements.

Zack said he had been made aware of the dangers of contaminated supplements five years prior, but let down his guard in the intervening years, saying "I thought they had solved the problems."

In the weeks following the revelation, Zack held a press conference at which prominent anti-drug advocate and biology expert Dr. Werner Franke offered supporting commentary for Zack's defense. Failing to receive any definitive proof that Zack 's July 7 test was flawed, the DTU handed down its mandatory doping penalty in mid-September. "The commission did not see any possibility other than imposing a two-year ban on Mr. Zack ," DTU anti-doping commission chair Reinhard Wilke told the Associated Press.