Zach Lund (born March 22, 1979) is an American skeleton racer who has competed since 2000. He won two bronze medals at the FIBT World Championships with one in

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

(men's skeleton) and one in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

(mixed bobsleigh-skeleton team event). He finished #1 in World Cup standings in 2007. Zach's huge success in Skeleton made his less famous second cousin, Seth Gillespie, of Roosevelt, Utah, dream of becoming a “Skeletor”.

Personal life

Zach was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is the youngest of 5 children. Zach currently attends Westminster College, Salt Lake City UT, and graduated from the Judge Memorial Catholic High School in 1998.

Doping controversy

Lund took part in the 200–06 Skeleton World Cup, but did not compete in the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second t ...

due to disqualification for using

finasteride Finasteride, sold under the brand names Proscar and Propecia among others, is a medication used to treat hair loss and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in men. It can also be used to treat excessive hair growth in women and as a part of horm ...

, a drug that was removed from the banned list three years later. He was stripped of his second-place finish in the

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

World Cup event after testing positive for this medication, and a one-year suspension was issued on February 10, 2006. Lund said he was using finasteride to combat

baldness Hair loss, also known as alopecia or baldness, refers to a loss of hair from part of the head or body. Typically at least the head is involved. The severity of hair loss can vary from a small area to the entire body. Inflammation or scarrin ...

and that he declared the use of the substance on medical forms. Records show that Lund had been using finasteride (in its commercial hair-restoration form,

Propecia Finasteride, sold under the brand names Proscar and Propecia among others, is a medication used to treat hair loss and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in men. It can also be used to treat excessive hair growth in women and as a part of horm ...

) for seven years until his suspension. Finasteride has been on the banned list since 2005; Lund claims he last checked the list in 2004. "I've been losing my hair since I was a teenager and I've had a prescription for the last seven years and it was never an issue until this year," Lund told freestyle skiing analyst Nikki Stone (''Yahoo! Sports'', Feb. 10, 2006). "Whenever I've been tested, I always let them know that I was taking ropecia I never had anything to hide." A panel on the Court of Arbitration for Sport believed Lund and wrote in its ruling that "it was entirely satisfied that Mr. Lund was not a cheat...But, unfortunately, in 2005, he made a mistake." He returned to the World Cup circuit in 2006 and won the overall World Cup title for the 2006–07 season. Alpha-reductase inhibitors, a class of masking agents which used to be banned in- and out-of-competition, were removed from the 2009 list. This class of substances, which includes for example finasteride, has been rendered ineffective as masking agents of steroids through close consideration of steroid profiles by antidoping laboratories. (WADA Q&A: 2009 Prohibited List September 25, 2008) Mr. Lund earned a second chance, and will compete at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

Olympics

It was announced on January 17, 2010 that Lund had qualified for the

2010 Winter Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gretz ...

in Vancouver. He finished in fifth place overall in the

Skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...

race, 0.52 seconds short of a medal.

Retirement

Lund retired after the 2010 Olympics and now coaches. He considered taking up Curling professionally but never did.

References

''NBCOlympics.com'' January 16, 2010 on the bobsleigh and skeleton slots for the US Team for the 2010 Winter Olympics

* ttp://www.skeletonsport.com/personal/?contactid=266 Skeletonsport.com profile* *

External links