Featured Document · USADA / WADA-Accredited Lab
When LifeWave patches were so effective, elite swimmers were investigated for doping — and cleared
In 2004, swimmers associated with the Stanford women's program — including athletes who went on to compete at the U.S. Olympic Trials — were wearing LifeWave patches during practice and competition while posting career-best times. After an anonymous tip alleged the patches contained a prohibited substance, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) launched a formal investigation.
USADA conducted targeted, no-notice, out-of-competition urine testing on the athletes and sent two separate sets of the patches to the WADA-accredited UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory for gas-chromatography / mass-spectrometry analysis — among the most sensitive drug-detection methods in the world.
The findings
- Confirmed: Every athlete tested negative for prohibited substances.
- Confirmed: Neither set of patches contained any substance on the WADA prohibited list.
- Confirmed: USADA found no credible evidence that wearing the patches violated any anti-doping rule.
"USADA does not have any credible information to support that the patches provided to it contain any prohibited substances… [or] that the use of the patches by the swimmers was a violation of any anti-doping rules."
In other words: the performance gains were real, the patches were clean, and the most rigorous anti-doping lab on the planet confirmed it. LifeWave's phototherapy technology delivered an effect significant enough to trigger a federal-level doping inquiry — and passed.
USADA letter — August 9, 2004
PDF · 3 pages · ~25 KB · English · Opens in a new tab
