Bernard Sainz, the 81-year-old French sports medicine advisor appealing against a conviction for 'incitation to doping' has defended his work in a Paris court by saying it was "not doping, just different to traditional medicine."
Sainz, who describes himself as a 'naturopath' but who is not a qualified doctor, is currently appealing against the 2022 conviction. He has always asserted his innocence against accusations of illegal medical practice.
"If someone wants to dope, they don't need me, they can find it all on the Internet," Sainz told the court earlier this week, according to L'Équipe.
"I have a different vision [than that of] to traditional medicine, I treat the cause and not the symptoms."
Known widely as 'Dr. Mabuse', in 2022 Sainz was placed under house arrest for a year as well as being barred from practicing medicine, after being found guilty of illegal medical practices and incitement to doping between 2013 and 2017. He could not receive a suspended sentence because he had already had prior convictions for anti-doping legislation violations.
On the third day of the current appeal trial, the Paris court was reminded that Sainz's long history of involvement in professional cycling dates back to at least the 1970s, after it was claimed that during that decade he had given one former aging local racer 'a second youth' to be able to win Paris-Nice.
Rather than doping riders, Sainz said, according to L'Équipe, riders called him to try and improve their performance through alternative, but not illicit, forms of nutrition and health practices.
These apparently included healthy lifestyle choices ranging from getting up just before sunrise and going to bed at 10:30 pm, as well as the extensive use of fasting, raw vegetables and citrus fruits, such as grapefruits and tomatoes – as has emerged in previous cases involving Sainz.
Saiz already received a €3,000 fine in 2013 in a case linked to horse doping, as well as receiving a two-year prison sentence in 2014 for incitation to doping in cycling and illegal medical practices in the 1990s. In 2017, he got another nine-month suspended sentence after he was accused of providing doping plans and illegal medical practices.
The trial continues.
