TUE MUST BE JOKING Dick Pound mocks use of powerful medication for asthma; raised worries about its use a DECADE ago
Hard-hitting ex-WADA chief wants athletes named if they have requests for therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) rejected
By VIKKI ORVICE
19th September 2016, 7:54 pm
DOPING chief Dick Pound raised concerns about the misuse of powerful medication for asthma by sports stars a DECADE ago.
And he has long called for the names of athletes who have requests for therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) rejected to be published.
Dick Pound has long been wary of how TUEs are sometimes used in athletiics
Former World Anti-Doping Agency chief Pound was also involved in the recent McLaren report, which found evidence of state-sponsored doping in Russia.
Now Russian hackers have highlighted the issue of exemptions by leaking the medical records of athletes on Wada’s computer system.
Cycling star Bradley Wiggins is under pressure to justify his use of medication to treat a pollen allergy, which he claimed was making his asthma worse.
He received three jabs for triamcinolone acetonide before races, including his 2012 Tour de France victory. The substance is banned but Wiggo was given permission by the TUE system.
The Russian hackers also revealed that Rio Olympics cycling star Laura Trott had obtained a TUE from 2009 to 2013 for salbutamol for an asthma condition. Tour de France ace Chris Froome also gained a TUE for a steroid used to treat chest complaints.
While there is no suggestion of wrongdoing by any of the stars whose details have been leaked, Pound raised concerns about TUEs in 2006.
Writing in his book “Inside Dope”, the outspoken Canadian said: “I think we should publish a list of those TUEs that are rejected, revealing the names of the athletes, the names of the physicians who issued them and why we rejected them.
“Why shouldn’t these physicians be exposed as the agents of cheating they are?
“I have often commented about the astonishing percentage of brave and dedicated athletes who seem to have arrived at the pinnacle of performance despite a medically acknowledged condition of asthma.
“This requires them to take Beta-2 agonists to help them breathe, all cheerfully prescribed by physicians.”
Beta-2 agonists, used in asthma treatment, can enhance the flow of oxygen and high amounts of salbutamol can have an effect similar to steroids.
Corticosteroids — such as the ones used by Wiggins and Froome — are anti-inflammatory agents and are commonly used to treat asthma and hay fever. But it means an athlete’s recuperation and recovery is faster because of the effects.
Dr John Dickinson, head of the respiratory clinic at the University of Kent, who has screened Team GB athletes for asthma, said sufferers could normally control their symptoms with inhalers.
And South African Dr Jeroen Swart, who has worked with top cyclists, has called on Team Sky to explain why Wiggo needed such strong medication.
He said: “Either they have prescribed it as a preventative medicine, which doesn’t sit well with me, or he had such serious symptoms that they were completely uncontrollable.”
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