Ian Thorpe, five-times Olympic gold medallist for Australia, has been cleared of doping allegations and the case against him is closed, the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) said yesterday, but the case remains open as far as FINA, the international governing body is concerned.

Last week, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne ruled in favour of FINA and against ASADA on the principal of whether the international federation has a right to appeal against a lack of action by the Australian authority. The normal time frame for such cases to be determined is two months, while in Thorpe’s case 17 months have passed since he provided the urine sample that was to prove troublesome.

FINA will now call on ASADA to send its documentation for review and evaluation by the Doping Control Review Board. FINA director Cornel Marculescu told The Times: “We will then see if the case should be taken further or whether that is the end.”

Thorpe was investigated by ASADA after a random drug test taken in May 2006, six months before his retirement, showed unusually high levels of naturally-occurring hormones. ASADA at first took no action but was forced to reopen investigations [although it claimed that it had never closed them] after FINA forced its hand by threatening to take the matter to CAS.

ASADA chairman Richard Ings told a news conference in Melbourne that the investigations confirmed Thorpe had not committed an offence. “The evidence available does not indicate the use of performance enhancing substances by Mr Thorpe and that he has no case to answer,” Ings said. “ASADA considers the matter closed.” Ings said ASADA had reached their conclusion after seeking expert medical and scientific opinion from the Australian Sports Drug Medical Advisory Committee (ASDMAC), the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accredited laboratories in Australia and Canada and the ANZAC Research Institute in Sydney.

“Experts from these internationally respected organisations were unanimous in their opinion that the evidence available does not indicate the use of performance enhancing substances by the athlete,” Ings said. “While the matter has taken some time to resolve, ASADA was absolutely determined to ensure that the results of our examination would leave no room for doubt.” The investigation was launched after a random sample taken from Thorpe in May 2006, shortly after he had undergone surgery to repair a broken hand, showed slightly elevated levels of testosterone and leutenising hormone. Both substances are naturally occurring and ASADA said it was common for athletes to show slightly elevated levels without any suggestion of an offence. Some anti-doping experts believed, however, that the Australian authority needed to show evidence that proved there was no case to answer. No such evidence had been provided - until now.

The swimmer’s case became public knowledge during the world championships at Melbourne in March this year when the leaked test results were published in a French newspaper. Thorpe always maintained his innocence and agreed to co-operate with the investigation. He expected to be cleared, he said back in March. He would also fight for his reputation and seek to weed out the mole who broke WADA’s code of conduct in leaking the laboratory results that not even he had had knowledge of.

“We were pleased that ASADA consulted independent experts from internationally respected organisations and they were unanimous in their opinion that there was no evidence of the use of performance enhancing substances,” Thorpe’s manager Dave Flaskas said in a statement. “We always believed this would be the outcome and Ian’s reputation as a fair competitor would be affirmed.” It is a widely held view. But the story is not quite over yet and will not be until FINA medical experts tick an official box that declares Thorpe free to go.

There was no comment from Thorpe, who is on holiday in the United States.

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