Today, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) announced that Felipe Pena, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner from Minas Gerais, Brazil, has accepted a one-year suspension for his second anti-doping violation. In 2015, Pena was found to have committed his first infraction.
Pena, 30, revealed positive test results for clomiphene and its metabolites as the result of an in-competition drug test administered at the 2021 International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) World Jiu-Jitsu Championships on December 12, 2021. Although the IBJJF is not a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Code, USADA was hired by the organization to perform testing for the event.
Clomiphene is a prohibited Specified Substance in the class of Hormone and Metabolic Modulators, as well as being prohibited at all times under the World Anti-Doping Code and USADA Protocol for Olympic and Paralympic Movement Testing. Under these rules, it will be prohibited at the 2021 IBJJF World Jiu-Jitsu Championships.
The one-year period of ineligibility for Pena began on January 7, 2022, the date his provisional suspension was issued. Furthermore, Pena has been disqualified from all competitive performances won in sanctioned IBJJF events or any Code signatory competitions held between December 12, 2021, and now, including forfeiture of any medals, points, and prizes. The sanction has been approved by the IBJJF.
In response to the penalties, Felipe Pena provided this statement.
“I feel obliged to come here and be transparent with those who like and follow my work forever! You who follow me, like my personality, my JJ, are always supporting me, cheering and vibrating along with the achievements of my career… of a substance called Clomiphene. As soon as I received it, I contacted my doctor Dr.Felipe Pereira and he told me that he had actually prescribed clomiphene for health reasons, nothing to do with my athletic life, on July/21 (5 months before the Worlds) when neither they had announced whether or not there would be a World Cup because of the covid. Clomiphene is a drug sold over-the-counter in any pharmacy without any prescription or restriction… From the first moment I told the user what had happened and after all the investigation they did, they decided to reduce my sentence from 4 years to a minimum sentence of 1 year for agreeing that it was not intentional, that it did not change my performance at all and for being the substance that it was. I believe that USADA’s work is important in any sport but even though this is all proven by them according to article 9, this would be the minimum penalty for tests done in competition and I don’t think it’s fair. During the process, I was even informed that if I had written a pre-competition letter informing me of what had happened, I would have had no problem, but due to inexperience and carelessness, this ended up happening. I just wanted to say that I have a clear conscience, and I’m still focused and motivated with the next goals. I’m sure there are a lot of good things to happen very soon, just thank you for the support of all of you who are always here following my routine, during good and bad times. We are always together 🙏🏼”
