This young man is Igor Walilko, a 13-year-old national junior champion driver from Poland and owner of a flashy, hilariously translated official website. In June 2010, Walilko tested positive for a banned substance called nikethamide after competing in an international kart race in Germany. He was 12 years old at the time.
Earlier this month the Federation Internationale de L'Automobile, or FIA, banned young Walilko for two years for testing positive in his post-race urine test, and he hasn't competed since. He and his lawyer, Michael Lehner, are set to appeal the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland tomorrow. Instead of attempting to provide evidence that the substance was consumed accidentally — a route that's allowed for nikethamide in particular — Lehner says he will argue that because Igor was under the age for the Youth Olympic Games cutoff, he cannot be considered criminally liable for doping.
"A 12-year-old boy is not able to remember what he eats the whole day," Lehner explained to the AP this week. "Maybe he gets it from some friends, we don't know." While we admire his honesty, he would probably be safe to go the American route and blame whatever the Polish version of a Fruit Roll-Up might be. Or Perdue chicken.