The USADA Finally Lost A Case

A 29 y.o. sprinter named LaTasha Jenkins, with the help of a Valparaiso law professor and some law students, is the first person to beat the US Anti-Doping Agency in an arbitration, where she had faced a two year ban from competition for allegedly testing positive for steroids. Her defense was, essentially, that the WDA lab techs had failed to have two separate lab teams test her two samples, to avoid having the same techs repeat an error, which I think is a perfectly reasonable procedural safeguard. Before this, they USADA had been undefeated in 40 arbitrations over the course of its 7 year existence. I think that's a credit to their diligence and ability to prepare strong cases, but I'm glad to see them finally lose one. It always makes me nervous when a prosecutorial body has an undefeated record, like the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York did for a few years. It just creates the wrong impression somehow.