Without reading the article, it's important to take every TUE on its merits. Some athletes have TUEs merely to be able to live a normal life. Some athletes will exploit the system. One size does not fit all...

He should consult Starky...

I'm inclined to agree that if you require a TUE, then you shouldn't be permitted to race for a period of time during and after that TUE, which would discourage abuse of the system if people are missing race days.

Like you say, there are some who need a TUE just to use medication to live a normal life, so there are some exceptions which would perhaps have to be looked at on a case by case basis, but then I think of Chris Boardman with his low testosterone levels. If he wasn't an athlete, he would have been prescribed supplementary T, such were his low levels, but of course couldn't and didn't do this as an athlete because obviously it would give him a significant advantage. He was suffering low bone density as a result and even retired early in order to begin taking the medication. This is an unfortunate case for him, and really does suck, but the right thing to do.

It's why I think Andrew Starky was stupid to race during his TUE, if he was truly committed to anti-doping, even with the legit reason for using - and even though I absolutely believe he was persecuted by Ironman Corp and given a disproportionate ban for being an outspoken critic of theirs and was failed by the TUE system.

At the end of the day, he was sick, needed it temporarily for health reasons and should not have raced over this period even if the 'system' could have allowed it.

That's why I hope the PTO, while perhaps not introducing their own anti-doping code, will do something along the lines of the MPCC and hold their athletes to a higher standard of ethics, including anti-doping and sportsmanship.

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Feel the Speed

Honest question, and I apologize for frankness but just looking for clarification of thought in advance.

Would this negate the need for TUE's? If not permitted to compete, it doesn't seem like an exemption, so much as a forced break.

If my understanding of what you're saying is correct, and it were implemented, I can almost guarantee you that this would have one glaring unforeseen consequence: normalizing athletes taking a year or two off from sport, to take drugs of choice while not competing. Many drugs have long-lasting performance-enhancing effects, long after the drug use has ceased.

Anecdotally, there is already a wide open door for this anyway and one which was as tempting as anything as I've ever encountered. It's currently acceptable for athletes to remove themselves from the international/registered testing pool (ITP / RTP) and thus eliminate their whereabouts reporting duties, only to be subject to whereabouts reporting and off-season drug testing for 6 months prior to their return to competition. You just have to notify admin that you'll be gone for 2 years.

Ironically, if you just literally stop showing up for competition, you can be automatically removed from the testing pool at the end of the annum for failing to meet competitive standards for needing to be tested and subsequently re-enter the testing pool whenever you re-qualify without a 6-month testing period prior to re-entry.

This was my exact experience in bobsledding. I could have been taking the kitchen sink full of anabolic drugs and just cycled off in time for my first competition back during Olympic year. Knowing that some of my direct competitors were doing exactly that, legally, spurred all kinds of inquiry and deep moral reckoning, let me tell you.

No idea if it applies in other sports but I suspect, yes.

I offer no useful info on reform of drug testing and TUE protocol. Richard Ings on twitter is an interesting guy to follow on this topic and related.

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Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
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Would this negate the need for TUE's?

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I think emergency TUE's will always be necessary- most importantly in a sport like triathlon where a % of the athletes at races may get direct medical treatment that "breaks" Wada reguluations and thus requires essentially a post dated TUE.

But other than those types of emergencies your take seems fairly accurate.

We had this discussion in the 100/100 IC about an athlete leaving a national federation membership and then doping to their eyes pop out and then becoming a member again. I'm "ok" with that in that there has to be a line drawn in the sand somewhere. So once you drop your federation membership, you shouldn't be bound by those same rules, imo. No of course this means that it can be "cheated", and I'll just suggest, for that I'm ok with cus if your going to be an asshole to cheat, so be it. But I think at some point there's gotta be a limit to your reach. But again that means that athletes could "cheat" the system and dope up and then come back, and I understand that's a shitty ass situation. But I'm also understanding that testing is a limited budget issue, I'm ok with dealing with the scope of testing only for "current" athletes.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

definitely not a foolproof system, but yeah I believe there would still be a TUE system, which includes an enforced break from racing while taking the exempted substance - not a break out of the system to take whatever you like - you could still potentially be tested during this period.

yes it could well result in what you're saying - but like I think you're saying afterwards, can't they do that now anyway and take a year or two off from the sport, out of the testing pools and do whatever they want? I can't see that requiring a break from racing while using a TUE would encourage that even more.

will be interesting to see if there's some crazy performances this year coming out of nowhere after the likely minimal testing in 2020 due to the pandemic and cancellation of a lot of racing.

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Feel the Speed

I don't see any performance being crazier than Pogacers TDF run lol. That was wild and I am still skeptical

haha true. but he didn't exactly come from nowhere the last year - not that I don't hold some scepticism over the performance that day and across the tour. we'll have to see how his consistency holds up over the next years.

that seems to have been the biggest retrospective red flag over the last decade or so for triathletes, cyclists and others that have conspicuously had a massive performance/ year and then conspicuously never come close to those levels again (some legit cases, others look very questionable now).

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Feel the Speed

Yeah that will be interesting to watch but as you said it wasn't completely out of nowhere, his finishes were getting better and better leading to tdf.

You need a TUE for Ketones? Lol wth.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

I think a distinction should be drawn between:

a) long term TUEs (i.e. the diabetic athlete on insulin or the athlete with Crohns disease who manages it with daily oral corticosteroids)

and

b) the situation where something happens to an athlete right before a competition, and they start a med that requires a TUE so that they can compete (examples would be an asthma flare, bronchitis, falling into a patch of poison ivy, etc).

I think athletes who fall into category 1 should be allowed to compete with their TUEs in place; but in category two you get a non-compete TUE. TUEs should NOT be granted so that an athlete can start taking something just in time for a competition.

I'm still amazed at the story of Henri Schumann in Rio '16. Here he was so sick he couldn't make it out of bed to go to the race spot drawing that was what 3 days before the event. Suddenly he takes drugs that lets him win a bronze medal, and on yeah it all basically got swept under the rug by the ITU?

Bullshit

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

It should be noted that World Tour cycling has done a pretty good job at getting TUEs under control. There were 239 granted in 2009. There were 9 in 2019. (source). I think we can credit the jiffy bag debacle for some of this.

I like Pinot, but he may be about a decade behind on this one. Don't know if those 9 were sketchy or not. But I'm not sure I agree with the premise that if you need one you shouldn't race as a blanket rule.

This point needs highlighting. If there are only 9 TUEs granted in 2019, it would be hard to argue that they're being wholesale exploited by fellow riders. Maybe one or two cases on the bubble, but by far not a peloton of two speeds.

Pinot sounds like he's done with the sport more than anything. He points out that a decade ago they were watching the clowns perform before races rather than (as they do now) have a race briefing in the bus. Now the demands of life in the peloton can be quite burdensome but I'm not so sure that taking ones trade a bit more seriously is that much of an undue hardship (vs living like a monk that they'd be doing anyway).

THIS

YEP!!!
and I definately think we will see some questionable results this year. I believe we already were last year, too many big "career best" PB's being set by already highly trained athletes. Some even stupid enough to post about them a few weeks after coming out of being in lockdown with compromised training.

I don't understand why some of the national anti doping programmes publicised they weren't able to do testing. To me that's just saying "go for it now while you can, we want the medals,"

That's precisely what they were saying, if indeed they publicized such a statement about testing. (I haven't checked).

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Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
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