Bodybuilding: Mr New Zealand rebuts steroid claims

Moe Moussaoui's sample irregularity was found one week before winning the New Zealand championships last October. Picture / Kenny Rodger

New Zealand's top bodybuilder failed a test for steroids one week before winning his second Mr New Zealand title last year.

Moe Moussaoui said yesterday that he had never taken steroids and would be vindicated.

"I know 100 per cent I did not use anything and I know 100 per cent there is a problem out there."

He also said the Herald did not have his permission to name him, quote him or take his photograph.

Moussaoui tore the notes from the reporter's notebook - though he later returned them - and threatened to take the photographer's camera.

An irregularity was detected in Moussaoui's sample taken at the Wellington championships last October, an event the former Mr California won.

A tribunal appointed by the New Zealand Federation of Body Builders (NZFBB) is due to hear his case this month. If the steroid positive is upheld the usual penalty is a two-year ban and forfeiture of titles and trophies, said president Mark Stewart.

An advertorial in a national newspaper last month said Moussaoui, who was born in Lebanon and lived in the United States before moving to New Zealand, was preparing for an assault on the American bodybuilding circuit, where he could make up to $1.3 million a year.

Moussaoui, 30, told the Herald he did not know what substance was found in his sample, or "whether the sample is mine or not". "They [the tribunal] will find out there is nothing in it. I know 100 per cent it's going to be cleared, unless they are going to make a big issue and not take my word."

He said he would ask for his samples to be tested again.

New Zealand Sports Drug Agency director Graeme Steel said it was standard policy to keep the relevant athlete and sport fully informed of each step from the time an A sample was found to be positive.

Stewart said the eight-month delay in having a hearing was due to not receiving notification of the positive until early this year and confusion about whether the independent Sports Disputes Tribunal would hear the case.

The tribunal, whose members include retired judges and lawyers, was set up in 2003 by Sport and Recreation New Zealand to help sports bodies resolve disputes.

"It's unfortunate. We would rather have the matter settled by the sports [disputes] tribunal," Stewart said, but that required agreement of the NZFBB and the athlete, but only the NZFBB had agreed.

This meant the NZFBB had to appoint its own tribunal.

Moussaoui has been a NZFBB committee member and a major sponsor of events through his supplements business Moes Muscles Xtreme Nutrition and Tanning Store.

Moussaoui told the Herald he resigned as a member of the NZFBB's committee before submitting to the drug test in October, but Stewart said Moussaoui was officially still on the committee until its annual general meeting last weekend.

Bodybuilding has a history of drug abuse. California governor and former Mr Universe Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted using steroids during his career, although they were not banned in the sport at the time.

The NZFBB has agreed to drug testing only in the past decade but whether to allow testing remains a topic of debate in the sport. It opted out of drug testing for a period in the late 1990s and a motion to scrap drug testing for all but the national championships was withdrawn from the AGM's agenda shortly before the meeting.

Had such a motion succeeded, competitors could easily time steroid use to avoid detection.

In the four years to June 2004, bodybuilding has made up 38 per cent of all positives recorded by the sports drug agency despite comprising a tiny percentage of athletes tested.