To hell and back Harris relieved doping ordeal is over, but disappointed in the process and lack of support from Curling Canada By: Joshua Frey-Sam Posted: 6:14 PM CST Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025 Last Modified: 8:58 PM CST Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025 Updates

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/01/2025 (279 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Briane Harris called the last 11 months a living hell.

The succinct answer was the only way the Winnipeg-born curler could aptly describe what her ban from competitive curling had been like, as she was strung along by the Court of Arbitration for Sport and saw little to no support from Curling Canada, while she was prohibited from competing, training or communicating with her coaches and teammates.

“I was told right from the beginning that I was on my own,” Harris told the Free Press in an emotional 22-minute phone interview on Wednesday.

Harris, a four-time national champion lead with Kerri Einarson’s Gimli-based team, tested positive for trace amounts of Ligandrol, an illegal substance, on the eve of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts last February in Calgary.

On Tuesday, nearly a year after she was provisionally banned and five months after she appealed her suspension — claiming that she had unknowingly been exposed to the drug through bodily contact — the court ruled she bears no fault or negligence for having the performance enhancer in her system.

The ruling revealed that she was exposed to the substance through intimate contact and the exchange of bodily fluids with her husband (Harris said it was from kissing), who was consuming the ‘Crossfit Stack,’ which contains Ligandrol.

Harris said she was relieved to finally hear the verdict, but exhausted from a process that took far longer than anyone had imagined it would. Her lawyers guessed, based on their experience, that it would take anywhere from two to four weeks for the court to make a ruling. As each month passed, they, too, were just as confused about why it was taking so long.

“It was really hard at the beginning, obviously, but then I found it became harder as I had to wait,” she said.

“I even said to my family, it probably would’ve been easier to hear that I had a suspension but just hear right away, rather than be on pins and needles for however many months it was since August. That was probably the hardest part of it all.”

Harris estimated her lawyers sent seven letters to the court since August in search of a verdict. Each of their attempts was stonewalled, but the court’s hot and cold responses gave the curler hope that a decision was near.

In October, it said a reasoned response (a verdict with an explanation) was being finalized and that a ruling would be issued shortly.

A month later, another letter was answered, this time saying the defendant would “find out in due course.” The next several attempts were met with the same response.

“It was really hard at the beginning, obviously, but then I found it became harder as I had to wait.”–Briane Harris

“It was a little bit of both, kind of leaving me in the dark but then also stringing me along a little bit,” Harris said. “I wish they never used that word, ‘shortly,’ because it obviously got my hopes up at that time and then to not hear until January… is pretty brutal.”

Harris and her lawyers never asked why the ruling was delayed, nor did the Court of Arbitration for Sport provide an explanation.

In many ways, that didn’t matter anymore. What did matter was she could play the sport she loves again.

“I was just overwhelmed, and I couldn’t believe it. I mean, I’m getting emotional talking about it now. I didn’t cry right away when I saw it, I was just so happy and I was like wow, this is amazing. But when I called my husband and my parents, that’s when I started breaking down. Just so happy. Happy tears,” she said.

Not all has been swept under the rug, though.

Harris said the last year of proceedings has left her with a sour taste toward Curling Canada for not supporting one of its athletes during the darkest stretch of her career.

“When you’ve given so much to a game and an organization like Curling Canada, being on Team Canada for four years and representing Canada at the worlds… it’s difficult when you feel like all that doesn’t matter in that moment, even though I told curling Canada that I was innocent, and I was still kind of left isolated,” she said, brought to tears again.

“If they knew this could happen, then how do they expect a non-athlete partner to know the rules and what’s allowed and what’s not?”–Briane Harris

Curling Canada’s high performance director, David Murdoch said the national organization was following rules that prohibit it from engaging with an athlete who is serving a ban, set in place by the World Anti-Doping Agency. It’s a rule that all national sport organizations must follow with banned athletes.

“It’s pretty clear with WADA and the rules around engagement and everything that we were informed about due process was that contact with Briane was to be extremely minimal as part of the sanctions that were a part of the process,” Murdoch said Wednesday evening.

“I will say challenging because as a national team program athlete, you want to look after your athletes from a wellness perspective. We did speak and explained to her that this is what the situation is, and as much as we want to be in contact as often as possible, that’s normally the due process that we had to go through.”

Murdoch explained it would also be a tall task to get the rule changed. There’s no guarantee that Harris’ experience wouldn’t happen again to another athlete.

“It’s definitely not for an NSO to change those rules. Those are rules that are put in place by WADA, so I think it would be something we could feedback for sure. Something we’d like to change? Absolutely,” Murdoch said.

The last year has been equally burdensome for Harris’ husband, Tory, who was unaware the substance he was taking was banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency and didn’t know he could pass it along to his wife.

Harris blamed Curling Canada and the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES), which handle athletes’ education on banned substances.

“If they knew this could happen, then how do they expect a non-athlete partner to know the rules and what’s allowed and what’s not?” she said.

Kevin Bean, the executive director of sport integrity for the CCES, said all national and international athletes are required to take a Canadian Anti-Doping Program course that explains how the rules apply to them. International athletes who curl must also enroll in an education program provided by the World Curling Federation.

The initial course with the CCES, which Bean said is reviewed annually and whenever there is a violation, is an hour, and athletes are asked to do a 30-minute refresher course in subsequent years. Spouses and partners do not take the programs.

“I think it’s something that we would consider,” Bean said of whether Harris’ case would evoke some sort of change.

“There’s been other cases in the past… where we have to consider whether or not the messaging alerts people or… what they have access to now should give them enough knowledge to know that in addition to checking their own medications, as part of the rules, an athlete is responsible not only for themselves but their entourage.”

Harris said she threw on the ice for the first time again Tuesday. She also spoke with Einarson, who is with the rest of the team in Guelph, Ont., this week for the Grand Slam of Curling’s WFG Masters event. Team alternate Krysten Karwacki has filled in as lead in Harris’ absence.

When they return from the event, the team will meet to discuss its lineup plans, with the Scotties just weeks away. Harris, who is six months pregnant with her second child, has stayed in shape throughout her pregnancy and said she is ready to make her comeback.

“It was really good to get out there and feel good and prove to myself even that I can still do it, and I still can do it pregnant, and I can do it even though I haven’t been on the ice in the year,” she said.

“It was just really a good feeling to get back on the ice and feel natural, and not be as rusty as I was expecting.”

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca