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Mr New Zealand rebuts steroid claims
By Phil Taylor
The New Zealand Herald
18.06.05
New Zealand's top bodybuilder failed a test for steroids one week before
winning his second Mr New Zealand title last year.
Moe Moussaoui said yesterday that he had never taken steroids and would be
vindicated.
"I know 100 per cent I did not use anything and I know 100 per cent there
is a problem out there."
He also said the Herald did not have his permission to name him, quote him
or take his photograph.
Moussaoui tore the notes from the reporter's notebook - though he later
returned them - and threatened to take the photographer's camera.
An irregularity was detected in Moussaoui's sample taken at the Wellington
championships last October, an event the former Mr California won.
A tribunal appointed by the New Zealand Federation of Body Builders
(NZFBB) is due to hear his case this month. If the steroid positive is
upheld the usual penalty is a two-year ban and forfeiture of titles and
trophies, said president Mark Stewart.
An advertorial in a national newspaper last month said Moussaoui, who was
born in Lebanon and lived in the United States before moving to New
Zealand, was preparing for an assault on the American bodybuilding
circuit, where he could make up to $1.3 million a year.
Moussaoui, 30, told the Herald he did not know what substance was found in
his sample, or "whether the sample is mine or not". "They [the tribunal]
will find out there is nothing in it. I know 100 per cent it's going to be
cleared, unless they are going to make a big issue and not take my word."
He said he would ask for his samples to be tested again.
New Zealand Sports Drug Agency director Graeme Steel said it was standard
policy to keep the relevant athlete and sport fully informed of each step
from the time an A sample was found to be positive.
Stewart said the eight-month delay in having a hearing was due to not
receiving notification of the positive until early this year and confusion
about whether the independent Sports Disputes Tribunal would hear the
case.
The tribunal, whose members include retired judges and lawyers, was set up
in 2003 by Sport and Recreation New Zealand to help sports bodies resolve
disputes.
"It's unfortunate. We would rather have the matter settled by the sports
[disputes] tribunal," Stewart said, but that required agreement of the
NZFBB and the athlete, but only the NZFBB had agreed.
This meant the NZFBB had to appoint its own tribunal.
Moussaoui has been a NZFBB committee member and a major sponsor of events
through his supplements business Moes Muscles Xtreme Nutrition and Tanning
Store.
Moussaoui told the Herald he resigned as a member of the NZFBB's committee
before submitting to the drug test in October, but Stewart said Moussaoui
was officially still on the committee until its annual general meeting
last weekend.
Bodybuilding has a history of drug abuse. California governor and former
Mr Universe Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted using steroids during his
career, although they were not banned in the sport at the time.
The NZFBB has agreed to drug testing only in the past decade but whether
to allow testing remains a topic of debate in the sport. It opted out of
drug testing for a period in the late 1990s and a motion to scrap drug
testing for all but the national championships was withdrawn from the
AGM's agenda shortly before the meeting.
Had such a motion succeeded, competitors could easily time steroid use to
avoid detection.
In the four years to June 2004, bodybuilding has made up 38 per cent of
all positives recorded by the sports drug agency despite comprising a tiny
percentage of athletes tested.
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Body building: Drug test outcome a secret
12.07.05
By Phil Taylor
The New Zealand Herald
The New Zealand Federation of Body Builders is refusing to make public the
outcome of a tribunal hearing into the positive steroid test returned by
Mr New Zealand champion Moe Moussaoui two weeks before he won the title.
The hearing was held last month but federation president Mark Stewart is
refusing to reveal the outcome, the identities of the four-person tribunal
or their sports, although he says they were not from body building.
But Moussaoui, 30, said last week that no penalty had been imposed.
Stewart would say only that the tribunal - appointed by the body builders
federation - decided Moussaoui "had suffered enough through the media
before anything went to the tribunal members".
The Weekend Herald revealed last month that Moussaoui failed a drug test
one week before winning the Mr New Zealand title in October. His sample is
understood to have been positive to two anabolic steroids.
It is normal practice for the federation to report the outcomes of
tribunal hearings into drug positives in a newsletter to its members but
Stewart said this would not be done on this occasion.
The tribunal hearing was held eight months after Moussaoui's sample was
taken.
Stewart said the body builders federation preferred to have the case heard
by the Sports Disputes Tribunal, an independent body made up of retired
judges and senior lawyers, but Moussaoui had refused.
Moussaoui said his positive was caused by "a mix-up".
He had produced a letter at his hearing stating he had passed doping tests
at competitions in the Middle East around the time he failed his test in
Wellington.
He had also suggested the Sydney Olympic Analytical Laboratory - used for
tests at the Sydney Olympics - may have got his sample mixed up.
Moussaoui said his future was now on the international professional
circuit where doping is not banned.
"I just didn't like the gossip and that some people took a bad impression
about me, although there is no hidden agenda. If someone asked me now I
don't care. I'm [now pro], I'm allowed to use whatever I want to make it
to the top."
Herald: Will you use steroids now?
Moussaoui: "If I want to take it to [the top level] ... it's a different
story. You've got to do what you have to do or you quit." He said he was
in the process of making that decision.
Moussaoui said that he had put forward a motion to the NZFBB annual
meeting last month to scrap drug testing for all but national
championships. He was upset that the motion was withdrawn while he was
overseas and without his agreement.
Moussaoui claimed 75 per cent of members did not want drug testing.
The NZFBB penalty for a steroid positive is usually a two-year ban from
its competitions and forfeiture of trophies.
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Bodybuilding: Two-year steroid abuse ban for Mr NZ
By Phil Taylor
The New Zealand Herald
23.07.05
Mr New Zealand bodybuilder Moe Moussaoui has been banned for two years
after testing positive to two anabolic steroids.
A sample taken from Moussaoui in October - shortly before he won the Mr
New Zealand title - was positive to testosterone and stanozolol.
Moussaoui this month told the Herald that a New Zealand Federation of Body
Builders tribunal had imposed no penalty.
The federation refuses to make the outcome public, but it is revealed in
drug-testing results released by the New Zealand Sports Drug Agency this
week.
The agency oversees doping control measures in New Zealand and records the
outcomes.
Its report does not name athletes but only one body builder is listed as
having tested positive to steroids in a sample taken last October, the
month Moussaoui acknowledges he gave a sample which proved to be positive
for steroids.
Moussaoui previously told the Herald that the tribunal had believed him
and he had cleared his name.
The Weekend Herald has confirmation that Moussaoui is the athlete banned
for two years.
Asked to comment this week, Moussaoui denied he had been banned.
He claimed another athlete before the tribunal with him had returned a
steroid positive.
But the only other body builder in the sports drug agency's summary of
doping infractions for the six months to December 31 last year was banned
for six months for cannabis.
Sports drug agency executive director Graeme Steel said the summary was
complete and listed every infraction, the drug and the outcome.
Had an athlete not been banned, this would have been recorded in the
summary, Steel said.
In an interview earlier this month, Moussaoui said he had given the
tribunal a letter stating he had passed doping tests in the Middle East
around the time he failed his test in New Zealand, and had argued his
positive could have resulted from a "mix-up".
"I studied the lab in Sydney and I told them [the tribunal]
straightforward that they get over 100,000 blood and urine test[s] a day
... It could easily have been mixed with somebody else's."
This is contradicted by the World Anti-Doping Agency's report of testing
conducted by its accredited laboratories which records that Sydney
processed 7738 samples last year.
Steel rejected Moussaoui's claim that he was not kept properly informed
during the process.
"Athletes have the opportunity to raise concerns about the testing process
with the agency prior to any decision being made in relation to a positive
test," Steel said.
"No submission was received from this athlete and it is disappointing to
see athletes attempting to discredit the process publicly when no evidence
is presented via the mechanism set up to properly consider complaints.
"No decision is made regarding a positive test until the B portion of the
sample is analysed.
"In all cases [including those relating to this athlete] an independent
person is appointed to verify the identity and integrity of the sample
container if the athlete cannot be present."
Moussaoui owns supplements business Moe's Muscles, which has been a major
sponsor of New Zealand Federation of Body Builders events. He has pushed
unsuccessfully for the federation to scrap drug tests for all but national
championships.
He told the Herald this month that his future was in international
professional competitions which don't ban performance-enhancing drugs.
"At the end of the day, all bodybuilders want to get to pro level, and at
pro level everyone knows that everyone is on the crap. So why be a
hypocrite about it."
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[Definitie:] "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance."
(Wilmore and Costill) 
