Chris Froome uses an Inhaler too.

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29 years and counting

So now she's a cheat because she uses an inhaler? I thought it was because she had an association with someone who may have doped 20 years ago. Make your minds up guys.


Why are you clearly distorting the comments?


The posts above clearly state that it is both the fact that she uses an inhaler, her coaches history as a cyclist in the doping era and her dominant wins that are raising suspicions. It's not one thing as the posts clearly show.

Firstly thanks for the info.
This does clear up the genuine asthmatics or more albuterol users and the likelihood of no performance enhancements.

Secondly it does appear all of those articles and studies refer primarily to Albuterol and it's equivalents.
I.e. those that WADA have confirmed allowable under the usage guidelines - or your 4 x 2 puffs a day etc.

I'm not as schooled on this as you may be, but it's the other Beta 2 Agonists that require the TUE that in my view are questionable/cheating etc.


Inhalers come in many forms, and some of these are banned hence the WADA listing all as banned except Albuterol Formoterol and Salmeterol.
http://www.usada.org/asthma-inhalers-important-update/


I do not see any mention of the other B2A's in the studies to dispute performance enhancing in those instances.


I'm also presuming that Salazar and the surrounding questionable inhaler usage is also on the TUE basis and relating to other B2A's, not the 3 mentioned above.


Now granted, having read more and learned more here it does appear perhaps (and hopefully) unlikely that one may go through a TUE for such a purpose, especially if only recently.
But nonetheless, as it appears a new usage by HL (still hoping not), then it is possible this is the case.


I do not know how hard it may be, and from reading the process it doesn't sound too laborious as made out to get a TUE if you have the right doctor, or perhaps background.


I suspect if I called my doctor and said my asthma was flaring up again, and the one prescribed to me was a B2A TUE item, I don't think I'd have any issue in obtaining same and likely enhancing performance.


This is certainly the skeptical side in me, arisen from an unusual to my eyes sight of inhaler in a world champ who has improved relatively dramatically in recent times and with questionable morals re coach/team links.


I do see now that going back many moons ago Emma Snowsill/Frodeno used one, I unfortunately have been limited to Triathlon Live reruns to see her performances as I'm not in this sport as long as others.
Likely a standard inhaler as we are going back quite far and would hope the possible benefits/banned TUE items were not prevalent or as known as now.


It would be great if the TUE user list was published. But unlikely as can be deemed private I imagine.

Either way, as I see it this will continue as is.
This situation for HL could absolutely be innocent if not on TUE. Or may be sinister but nonetheless allowable if on TUE.

We may see more usage of inhalers going forward and with/without TUE's (we will never know).

If I were HL and putting honesty first, I'd publish proof of asthma from an early age and/or old prescriptions hopefully with Albuterol inhaler.
Also possibly has always used an inhaler for racing and this only comes to spotlight as in the big time now.


Either way as you point out, no rule is being broken under WADA whether Albuterol or a recent TUE inhaler.
Just more internet speculation for some of us.

Holly Lawrence's run coach is Sean Jefferson from Los Angeles, if that means anything to anyone. And I'm still waiting for a link where Holly says Sean Yates is her cycling coach, which given they live in different continents is not exactly realistic (except as an analyser of power data.)

I'm not a big 70.3 person, but the fact are these surely - Holly Lawrence was racing ITU until 2014 (I knew her as a good swimmer and biker and unimpressive runner), when she decided to go long (at the age of 24.) In her first year, she managed a 2nd at Mount Tremblent. She worked with Matt Dixon (who worked with Rachel Joyce in the past). This year, she went one better at Tremblent, won Alcatraz and other events and was clearly the form horse going into Maloolaba. For some reason, the guy who started this thread had not noticed any of this.

I would say knowing Holly Lawrence from ITU, her success surprises me. But I think it just shows that the world of 70.3 is not very deep. And if ITU athletes like Vicky Holland, Flora Duffy or Sarah True were to make the switch, I think we would see the event turned on its head.

You both beat me to it.

Anyone would think that only North Americans are allowed to win, and if they don't it's not because they weren't good enough, it's because other people 'drafted', or 'used an inhaler when no other champion ever has'....oh wait yes they have....

Hardly any posts congratulating Holly on an excellent performance which given people here are supposed triathlon fans is pretty sad. But then maybe you're just all fans when one of your own wins.

You seem to know a lot about Holly, can you tell me who prescribed her the inhaler? UK doctor or US doctor? Does the have a TUE for asthma medication?

Looks like she sucked last year without an inhaler and is a World champion this year without one. Maybe she had asthma all these years and never noticed!

Sucks to her ass-mar!

I agree, this is something that deserves a conversation.

Just shows that the forum is full of assholes and is one reason why most pro's would be mad to post here or do an AMA.

Cant remember if Jefferson is still racing. I saw him at the Chicago GF last year, but no memories since. Maybe they trade swim coaching for run coaching?

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

Agreed. Daniella Ryf had a terrible season in her last season or so in ITU and she changed coaches and is now dominating most ironman and half races, so it's not as if people don't improve from season to season or when they change coaches etc. And then you've got Chrissy Wellington who came from virtually nowhere. Sometimes you just need to keep sticking at something and breakthrough seasons can result.

Asthma inhalers: There are short acting beta-agonists (i.e. albuterol) and long acting beta agonists (formoterol, salmeterol, vilanerol). The latter are known as "LABAs." LABAs are sometimes dosed alone, but more frequently combined with an inhaled corticosteroid.

When someone's carrying an inhaler with them during a race, it's almost certainly albuterol, which is legal (no TUE required) unless taken in ridiculously high doses. Albuterol kicks in very quickly - in minutes.

In contrast, the LABAs take time to work - I'm on Advair, which is a combo of salmeterol and an inhaled corticosteroid, and it takes two hours to partially work, and three hours to take full effect. They also last about 10-12 hours. It would make little sense to carry a LABA for anything shorter than an Ironman. I always run with an inhaler - it's a safety thing. And it's always my albuterol - the Advair stays in my medicine cabinet at home or at my hotel.

As noted, the LABAs formoterol (ingredient in Dulera, Symbicort, Foradil) and salmeterol (ingredient in Serevent and Advair) are legal and do not require a TUE when taken at reasonable doses. Ditto albuterol. However, vilanerol (the LABA in the asthma drug Breo) does require a TUE, and there's been multiple cases of athletes banned for taking it.


Interesting side fact - they test for asthma by doing a bronchodilator challenge - you do a breathing test (called a PFT), then take a heavy dose of albuterol through a nebulizer. Then you do another PFT and they compare the results. If you show a significant improvement after the albuterol, then you have asthma.

Back when they required a TUE for albuterol, the required documentation was....a bronchodilator challenge showing improvement from the albuterol. So of course it makes sense that they no longer require a TUE - it's a tautology. Anyone who was helped by the albuterol was considered to have asthma and was eligible for the TUE.

Yeah because there's nothing suspicious at all about Chrissie Wellington's twilight years. I suppose Paula Radcliffe could have just hit that breakthrough result when she rolled a 2:15 marathon too.

This was exactly what they did for me. I was at Dr's office for routine annual checkup a few years back. I mentioned that sometimes I had difficulty breathing, particularly at night, and often in conjunction with having been exposed to pets I'm allergic to (at the in-laws house, typically). Or, strangely enough, red wine sometimes set it off (which also seems to happen at the in-laws ;-)

But of course, I felt just fine that day, so how would she test me to see if anything was wrong?

My doc did the test, then the nebulizer, then she retested - it was a pretty dramatic difference.
Whaddaya know? I have asthma. Yay.

All that said, I have never carried or used an inhaler before, during, or right after a race.
Fortunately, I haven't felt the need, to date.

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float , hammer , and jog

Yet you continue to read and post here...what does that make you?

I enjoy the entertainment of Age groupers who have nothing better to do than accuse any top performer of taking drugs. I don't go around accusing every winning athlete of using performance enhancing drugs or drafting, so i guess I'm not an asshole.

Pretty sure there was a thread about an up and coming Scandinavian triathlete and the first thoughts were performance enhancing drugs. Sanders can't swim but him not winning 70.3 worlds is all the fault of the camera moto, Lawrence winning must be drugs, the entertainment never ends. People on here are as bad as the French media complaining when Froome dominates the TDF, pathetic.

Why not just throw anyone under the bus that wins a major event in any sport ? Pretty much what some people on these forums do.

Finishing 3rd at Oceanside in 2015 after leading the race through 8 miles on the run, can hardly be described as "sucking last season"... Especially since it was her first season at the 70.3 distance. Holly was dealing with injury issues last year which hampered run training and even forced her to DNF at Vineman. She finished 11th at World's last year... despite the injuries.

Prior to last season, with almost 10 years of triathlon under her belt and a stint on the ITU circuit, she was known for being a phenomenal swim-biker on the British squad, but often was given a domestique role as a relatively weaker runner in the very deep British team. Weakness in this context meaning that a sub-33min 10k was not on her palmares, given the depth of the British women. She was also a member of the Welsh Commonwealth Games team. She's hardly come from "nowhere"...

She swims with Tower 26 in LA with well-known swim coach, Gerry Rodrigues.

Holly is pretty cute tbh!! But alright guys kienle is doped reed is doped holly is doped Jan is doped ryf is doped they are all doped and Santa is not real I am sorry to tell you. She had an inhaler so she could run faster and Yates is doping her up and all the other ones are doped up too most likely just get over it

And accuse an American of a sinister result and you get jumped all over. Brilliant stuff.

What horrible worlds all these cynics must live in. Sure *some* people dope. But you know what? The vast majority don't. Haven't. And never will.

But hey lets just ignore facts and throw people under the bus for no real reason than they're not who you want or expect to win.

SMH.

Is entertaining at least.

Probably.

For all the others, what events of the past have led you to trust results and super human performances these days. History has shown us that if it seems too good to be true, then it most likely is too good to be true.

And was someone really using Froome as an example of a "clean" athlete winning a big event?! Thank you for making my day.

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https://twitter.com/mungub

Forget about the coaching change, let's talk about who her new marketing consultant is. Whoever told her to switch to this pink swimsuit style race suit is a damn genius.

In the evening after finishing the 2015 IM70.3 WC in Austria, I went out with my son to celebrate his 35th birthday. We found two open seats in front of a nice restaurant in the heart of town. On my left was a young lady and her parents from England. After asking them to take a picture of my son and I together, we ended up talking about the race and England where I had lived a couple of years. That is when I learned that the girl next to me was a pro named Holly Lawrence. I didn't know her from squat but she was utterly charming and gracious. And her bad day at Zell am See was one I could have only dreamed about. I think it is fantastic that she won the title this year and wish her the best.

Agreed. Yum.

Yes, let's turn this into a thread about thigh gap.

But seriously, what's with the tall black cycling socks?

 


Daniella did have a terrible last season at ITU I agree, but she wasn't the athlete Holly was either. She had a WTS win under her belt and plenty of top 10's before that season.

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