Not a Norwegian

I am so upset right now. A Norwegian rider Tony Andre Hansen had his bronze medal striped after it was discovered his horse had been doping. I cannot believe a Norwegian could do such a thing, we should hold ourselves above such lowly forms of cheating. (If you didn’t pick that up, I am Norwegian.) Because of his actions, the Norwegian team did not have enough points to earn a bronze, giving it over to team Switzerland. The Swiss? What the frick?!?!?!

Along with letting his team down, the 29 year old rider has been banned by the sport for 4 ½ months. But Hansen is not the first rider to try and pump up his horse using the performance-enhancing drug capsaicin. Three others including Germany’s Christian Ahlmann, Brazil’s Bernardo Alves and Ireland’s Denis Lynch were all suspended between 3 and 4 months for their actions.

Brazil’s Rodrigo Pessoa, who received the gold medal in 2004, was also disqualified when his horse tested positive for nonivamide and suspended for 4 ½ months while American Courtney King was suspended for one month because her horse tested positive for felbinac.

This whole thing is like an episode of Pysch without the murder part, but I could totally see Shawn and Gus investigating this stuff.
(Photo: TRYGVE INDRELID; source)