Peter Bol has a remarkable story. From Sudan to Australia to the world, the 800m runner captured the national imagination at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics – becoming the first Australian man to reach the final of the two-lap event since 1968, ultimately finishing fourth. His story, his enthusiasm and his charisma captivated a country in lockdown, offering light during a dark time.
Having come to running late, Bol reached another final at the world championships in 2022 and ran to a silver medal at that year’s Commonwealth Games. His heroics had by then made him a household name.
He was named Young Western Australian of the Year last year, and it has been speculated he was in line for the national honour until the suspension. A multicultural icon, Bol came to Australia as a child after his Sudanese and South Sudanese parents fled turmoil in Sudan, via a stint in Egypt.
The Paris Olympics beckoned alongside a historic prospect: only two Australian men have ever won the 800m gold medal, at the first-ever modern Games in 1896 and at Mexico 1968.
But then came the doping allegation. In January 2023, Bol was provisionally suspended after returning an adverse analytical finding for synthetic EPO, a performance enhancing drug. The allegation caused widespread disbelief among Australian sports fans: say it ain’t so, Pete?
Within a month, the suspension was lifted after his B sample returned an atypical finding. Several weeks later independent scientific reports commissioned by Bol’s lawyers found no synthetic EPO in the runner’s samples and raised major questions about the testing methods used on the positive sample. “Alhamdulillah” – thank God – as Bol said on Instagram.
By July last year, Australia’s anti-doping agency had dropped the case against Bol; in April, the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) revealed new protocols governing EPO testing in the wake of the Bol saga. Case closed – Bol the victim, not a doper. A hero even – someone who had been unjustly subject to a broken process and then campaigned for reform that will protect athletes from future injustice.
That remains the official line. In his own words, Bol has been “exonerated”. He arrives in Paris with the full support of the governing body Athletics Australia; Bol will take to the start-line on Wednesday, seeking to become just the third Australian man, after Edwin Flack in 1896 and Ralph Doubell in 1968, to win Olympic 800m gold.
Come that day, the biggest question in the mind of most observers will not be Bol’s experience of the anti-doping system, but the middle-distance runner’s form after he failed to progress through the heats of last year’s world titles. Can he relive the glory of Tokyo – in the final, Bol led through 700 metres but could not quite find the legs to stay with the ultimate medallists – and even reach the podium?
If it was not for an unrelated anti-doping hearing in Europe two months ago, that would be where Bol’s story ends for now. But in May, at a hearing before the Court of Arbitration for Sport relating to an EPO case against Croatian footballer Mario Vuskovic, a wrinkle was added to Bol’s happy ending.
It came in two forms. In response to claims by Vuskovic’s lawyer Paul Greene, who also represented Bol, about the reliability of testing, Wada scientists hit back. They insisted that Bol’s case did not involve a false positive, but instead that subsequent testing had been hindered by the degradation of his urine sample due to the passage of time. That meant subsequent testing was inconclusive.
Then came the more serious allegation. Wada general counsel Ross Wenzel told the tribunal that anti-doping authorities had discovered on Bol’s phone a screenshot, saved in September 2022, five weeks before the initial positive sample was collected, containing information about synthetic EPO use.
The screenshot, Wenzel claimed, included a letter from an American businessman Victor Conte to former British sprinter Dwain Chambers “discussing micro-dosing with EPO in the off-season”, including information about “various techniques to game the whereabouts system” (whereby athletes must keep anti-doping authorities updated on their location). Conte served jail time in the United States for distributing steroids, while Chambers served a two-year ban for using a banned drug supplied by Conte.
“When [Bol] was interviewed about this and asked about the screenshot which was on his phone – it was not in his search history it was actually something that had been saved on his phone – the answer was, ‘oh, I read a lot of things, I am interested in learning and all that,’” Wenzel told the panel.
Bol has not commented publicly on the recent allegations. Athletics Australia told the Age, which first reported the development, that “from our perspective, this case is closed, and we support Peter and his ongoing preparations for the Paris Olympics.” His lawyer, Greene, criticised Wada during the tribunal hearing. “They are still defaming Mr Bol in this hearing and it’s just a total disgrace,” Greene said. “Wada will never admit when it makes a mistake and it will not admit it in the Bol case.”
This week, at long last, Bol will let his running do the talking. In practical terms he has been vindicated – the suspension was lifted, the case against him closed and Wada’s protocol on EPO testing changed as a result. Next Wednesday he will run in his third Olympics for the green and gold, hoping to replicate his whirlwind success in Tokyo.
“Third time’s a charm,” he said on social media after being selected.
