Australia’s Peter Bol will once again be at the Paris Olympics and is a good chance to be in the medal places after finishing narrowly outside them at the Tokyo Games.

However, his last year and a half has been significantly hampered by a doping accusation, where Bol was initially charged and eventually cleared of using a banned substance by Sport Integrity Australia.

Despite his exoneration for now, new information has recently come to light that adds another dimension to the situation and is leading to Bol’s lawyer publicly defending his client on the eve of the Games.

The Sporting News looks at the new information and at the timeline of Bol’s drug test saga.

MORE: Full Australian Olympic squad for Paris games

What new information in Peter Bol doping case has emerged?

In late May, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age reported text messages had been found on Bol’s phone that contained information on how to evade how to evade drug testers.

The revelation occurred during a Court of Arbitration and Sport (CAS) hearing for Croatian footballer Mario Vuskovic, who is being defended by Paul Greene, the same lawyer who represents Bol, and was uncovered by Australian anti-doping officials.

The texts were reportedly from Victor Conte, an notorious American who admitted to running doping programs in the past and has spent time in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute steroids.

The World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA) general counsel Ross Wenzel said the article was, “about using EPO, how to use it in the off-season and the screenshot was opened on Mr Bol’s phone on the sixth of September 2022, a month and five days before a sample initially categorised as positive was collected on the 11th of October 2022.”

WADA also claimed at the hearing that Bol was cleared not because of a false positive test, but because “the time that elapsed between tests caused [the degradation of the urine samples].”

WADA scientist Yvette Dehnes told the CAS hearing, “[In] the Bol case, we had a very low recombinant EPO signal in the A sample which was weakened in the B sample confirmed three months later. This time issue is important when you are looking at samples with such low concentration of recombinant EPO, as in the Bol case, because you can have degradation over time,”

Greene claimed this was an attempt from WADA to absolve themselves of responsibility for “falsely accusing Bol of doping.”

What have Athletics Australia said since?

A day later, Athletics Australia supported Bol and said his place at the Olympics was still safe, telling The Sydney Morning Herald they were satisfied with the investigations conducted by Sports Integrity Australia last year.

It should be noted the text messages found on Bol’s phone do not constitute an admission of guilt, and despite WADA’s claims, Bol is still considered innocent of the charges put against him at the time of writing.

Peter Bol doping case timeline

In January 2023, it emerged Bol had failed an out-of-competition drugs test in October 2022, with Athletics Australia provisionally suspending him pending the results of a follow-up test for the banned substance EPO.

Bol maintained his innocence, saying in a social media post at the time, “It is critically important to convey with the strongest conviction that I am innocent and have not taken this substance as I am accused.”

The tale took a twist a month later, when Sport Integrity Australia then reported the B sample for  Bol’s test came back “Atypical… for recombinant EPO.” 

Whilst this wasn’t the same as an outright negative test, it meant his provisional suspension was lifted; in August last year, an investigation from Sports Integrity Australia concluded, “[after gathering] varying expert opinions as to the positive or negative reporting of the sample, and the A-sample was reported as negative,” and they decided not to progress an anti-doping violation rule on Bol. 

WADA did not contest the finding, and said in a statement, “WADA is satisfied that SIA has followed all applicable processes in accordance with the World Anti-Doping Code.”

The finding meant Bol was free to compete at that month’s World Championships in Eugene, USA, and allowed him to eventually qualify for the Paris Olympics, where he will compete in the 800m event.