Max Jaben set to face Swimming Association tribunal

22-year-old, suspended from Olympic team, will try and explain how traces of anabolic steroid Boldenone were found in urine sample taken from him in April.

By ALLON SINAI
max jaben 224 88 (photo credit: Avi Sirota)
max jaben 224 88
(photo credit: Avi Sirota)
Swimmer Max Jaben, who has been suspended from the Israeli Olympic team after failing a drugs test, will plead his innocence on Tuesday afternoon when he faces an Israeli Swimming Association tribunal. The 22-year-old will try and explain how traces of the anabolic steroid Boldenone were found in a urine sample taken from him in April. Jaben has claimed that he has alternative theories for the failed test and is hoping that these will convince the ISA to choose the unlikely option of punishing him lightly. Gili Lostig, the director of Israel's Elite Sport Department, the division set up in 1984 to oversee the selection of athletes for the Olympics, has followed Jaben closely since he made aliya from the US last summer following his appearance in the 2005 Maccabiah, and is deeply disappointed with the unexpected twist to the swimmer's story. "This is very disappointing. We're talking about an athlete who came to the Maccabiah and decided to make aliya and live his life in Israel," Lostig told The Jerusalem Post. "He settled in very well and made impressive progress in the pool, meeting the Olympic Committee of Israel criteria. This is a shattered dream and undoubtedly a bitter disappointment."