Pavle Jovanovic

Pavle Jovanovic (January 11, 1977 – May 3, 2020) was an American bobsledder of Serbian origin who had competed since 1997. At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, he finished seventh both in the two-man event and in the four-man event. Although on the U.S. Bobsled team in 2002, he was disqualified from competing due to the presence of prohibited substances from food supplements, which he claimed were taken without his knowledge or intent.

Jovanovic won a bronze medal in the four-man event at the 2004 FIBT World Championships in Königssee.

In 2011, Jovanovic started to compete for Serbia.

He was one of the best pushers in bobsledding, a position requiring extraordinary strength. At the age of 20, he began to race Bobsleds competitively, and proved adept at the art of being the brakeman. A brakeman is a pusher, sitting at the rear of a four-man or two-man sled. "The brakeman is crucial in getting the sled started, and stopping the sled after the run. His competitive weight was , and he stood 1.85 meters (6 ft 2 in) tall. His size and performance made him "an ideal brakeman", something he did not start out to do. "I did it because I loved it ... [and] I was naturally good at power lifting and running."

Jovanovic was seen as a likely medalist at the 2006 Olympics. Todd Hays said he had both the right equipment and "I have the push. I just didn't drive well again tonight. For some reason, I can't find a rhythm on this track," despite finding the 'rhythm' of all the other tracks in the world.

Doping suspension Before testing positive, Jovanovic likely would have been the pusher for driver Todd Hays' sleigh—which won the silver medal in four-man in the 2002 Olympics. Instead, he watched the event on television.

The International Olympic Committee imposed a two-year ban against Jovanovic. Jovanovic maintained it was an accidental ingestion. In 2002, his teammates broke the 46-year medal drought.

Perspective The suspension of Jovanovic for the use of nutritional supplementswhich he swore he did not know to be steroid adulteratedbecame a cause célèbre. Essentially, he became the poster child for the cause.

In an interview, team captain Todd Hays pulled items out of a bag and showcased them, referring to them as "illegal drugs" and as would "a lawyer setting up Exhibit A for the jury." Noting that the sports supplements and drinks were available for free in the Olympic Village,efn-ua|These things are all free of charge, available on every corner of the Village," he said. "And I find that to be quite ironic that these people (from the IOC and USADA) will stand on this soap box and preach about the integrity of the athletes when you give them a few dollars and they'll put these bars out." Being branded a cheater does great harm to athletes. The suits allege that the tainted powders, pills and liquids "caused them to fail tests designed to spot cheaters." He filed a lawsuit against Century Foods International in Wisconsin over his 2001 failed drug test in October 2005. This lawsuit was dismissed by agreement on April 12, 2006, in Salt Lake City.

Such contamination has been a common problem.efn-ua|An Olympic accredited testing lab in 2002 found 94 of 634 supplement samples were tainted. Substances not listed on the label were present and would trigger positive drug tests. Likewise, a 2007 report said "about 25% of supplement samples contained low levels of steroid and/or stimulant contamination". So U.S. bobsledder Pavle Jovanovic and NFL running back Mike Cloud blamed doping positives on tainted protein powders. World-class swimmer Kicker Vencill and Hans Knauss (Austrian skier) successfully "sued supplement manufacturers for their flunked doping tests."