Drug testing at Worlds Gemany

Triathlon Forum
1

Just got this in the mail. I see this as great news.

Dear Team USA athletes,

This letter was just sent out to all National Federations. It is critical that you read over this document and contact us immediately if you take any medication that could be questionable.

Age Group athletes will be undergoing drug testing. To make sure you are “playing by the rules” be sure to read this letter and email teamusa@usatriathlon.org with any medication or health issues we need to be aware of.

Thank you,

Team USA department.

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Dear representatives of the National Triathlon Federations,

On behalf of the International Triathlon Union and the German Triathlon Federation, the hosts and organizers of the “Hamburg BG Triathlon World Championships” would like us to inform you about some important details in regards to the handling and execution of the current ITU Anti-Doping Program during the event in Germany:

During the World Championships, the ITU will carry out a high number of doping controls. In conformity with the International Standards for Testing urine samples will be taken, as well as blood samples. Thereby Age Group, Junior, Under 23 and Elite athletes will all be monitored. The ITU intensifies its fight against doping by conducting strict pre-competition controls beside the regular competition controls.

We want you to forward the following information to all of your national athletes taking part in Hamburg – as soon as possible:

According to the WADA Code and rule 4.4. of the ITU Anti-Doping Rules each participating athlete with documented medical conditions requiring the use of a prohibited substance or a prohibited method basically has to exhibit a therapeutic use exemption (TUE). Thereby, each athlete is generally obliged to provide a TUE issued by ITU (Rule 4.4.2.).

For the purpose of these provisions the ITU and the anti-doping administrator will accept for the facilitation of the result management the following:

  1.         **<u>For Junior, U 23 and elite competitors: TUE´s issued by their National Anti-Doping-Organisations</u>** in compliance with the WADA-Code and the International Standard for TUE.  

  2.         **<u>For athletes taking part at the ITU Age Group World Championships:</u>** the presentation of medical certificates including medical diagnosis and prescribed substances. In relation to the facilitation for Age Group athletes, the ITU reserves its right to evaluate their presented certificates and to deny the acceptance.

During the BG Triathlon World Championships 2007 testing will take place for the juniors, U23, elite and age group athletes.
In case they are chosen to be tested the athlete needs to carry a copy of his identity card including a photo.

ITU assumes no liability for drinks or food every athlete ingests during the race. ITU cautions all athletes about possible ingredients being part of the list of prohibited substances in context with the ITU anti-doping rules and the WADA prohibited list. Also the intake of food supplements – before and during the race - happens at the athletes’ own risk. With possible ITU anti-doping rule violations in mind each athlete should urgently inform himself on the ingredients of these supplements before every intake.

Please submit the TUEs or the Medical Certificates to Leslie Buchanan at leslie.buchanan@triathlon.org or fax at 1.604.904.9249.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
ITU and the DTU (German Triathlon Federation)

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image001.jpg Dave

2

Wow I can’t believe they posted a warning.
Let us see now how many registered folks have great excuses to not show up.
Other than “the dog ate my triathlon gear”.

:slight_smile:

Herbert

3

It’s a bummer they posted a warning…it could have been fun otherwise…

4

Yes, it will be interesting to see if any of the folks get sick.

I wish USAT would test 100% of us before we get on the planes!! I want to know I am on a team
that IS 100% clean, and only one way to prove it. Where do I line up for my testing!!!

Dave

5

Yes, it will be interesting to see if any of the folks get sick.

I wish USAT would test 100% of us before we get on the planes!! I want to know I am on a team
that IS 100% clean, and only one way to true an prove it. Where do I line up for my testing!!!

Dave

6

“It’s a bummer they posted a warning…it could have been fun otherwise…”

if they did not post a warning then there would be no opportunity to bring your TUE materials. this raises a couple of questions:

  1. what if you come with an actual TUE in hand from USADA? as an AGer will that be honored?
  2. will the germans adjudicate your psuedo-TUE prior to the race, or after you test positive?
  3. who is the testing authority? it’s already been established that the ITU will not be transparent in its breakdown of adverse findings, that is, if you ask the ITU to give an accounting for the 74 adverse findings in 2005 (i have) it won’t do so. in many cases, the ITU itself is the testing authority, which means the lab will only submit the findings to it, and to WADA, and i’m also satisfied that WADA will not in any public and transparent way audit triathlon’s adverse doping findings. so, there’s no real check and balance here, nothing to keep this from being all for show. but if the germans are the testing authority, they’ll get to know the test results., and hopefully not bury them.

i think i’ll see if i can find out who the testing authority is.

7

As if testing is any real indication of who is clean and who is not? Please.

8

It sure is better than nothing is it not?

What would you offer to deal with the drug issue?

Dave

9

It has been the ITU in the past.

After all it is an ITU world championship, isn’t it?

I doubt that the DTU has any say in this. They are just the organizers.

http://www.hamburgcityman.de/downloads/AnnouncementHamburgBGTriathlonWorldChampionships2007.pdf

So yes, grim outlook indeed.

10

Hello H2ofun and All,

If the German system tests out OK it might be a workable model for other races. Handling the AG with a two tier system would relieve some of the admin load by not requiring a ‘real’ pre judged TUE for AG, just a note from your doctor.

Slowman’s series of articles on doping is very timely.

Cheers,

Neal

11

I’d actually scrap the whole concept entirely, meaning a world championship not the testing part. Unless you can have designated team members for a duration and do out of competition testing it’s worthless (note: there are competitions that do that but are almost near worthless – see TdF in your dictionary). What you are going to get is an unorganized process with unprepared people who have real issues and you are going to get a cluster*&%^. Those who are prepared will never get caught unless they are stupid. For someone who is educated on the process and how the test works avoiding a single point test is easy breezy.

12

Yep, you are 100% right, but I still would rather try and just do nothing!!

Dave

13

Dan and Herbert, may be getting bigger.

Dear athletes,

As if you aren’t already informed enough about the drug testing… I have more information from our Team USA doc, Dr. Hunt. Please read below:

I am sure you have already seen the article, but in case you have not, there was one today in Inside Triathlon about the ITU’s move to test all amateurs at the World’s.

Anyone with a TUE form will, in addition to submitting this to USADA, have to either email it to Leslie Buchanan at ITU at leslie.buchanan@triathlon.org or fax it to her at 1-604-904-9249. While the ITU did not mention that they would honor a TUE already granted by USADA, I would advise the athlete to also submit to USADA in case any there are any questions or problems with ITU.

I suspect that this fallout from the Eric Zabel admission of doping and the current controversey with the Cycling Worlds in Stuttgart. The German govt wanted to cancel the event for fear of a multitude of doping positives. Nevertheless, the ITU is going to have a BIG bill for all of the tests that they are proposing.

Call if you have any questions.

                 Andrew Hunt, MD

Dave

14

here are some things to consider. first, the guy i wrote about, who submitted a TUE about 7 months ago, emailed me today and said he has still not gotten an answer back from USADA about his request. this is an age grouper in cycling, and if i told you his name, 4 out of 5 of you would know it. so we’re not talking about just some guy. this does not bode well for AG triathletes getting their TUEs turned around on short notice.

secondly, this is the email i sent to leslie buchanon yesterday, no reply yet, i’ll let the board know if/when a reply has been received…

I’m interested in knowing how the results will be presented. As you know, adverse findings in triathlon sort of fall into the black hole. WADA puts out its raw numbers, which of course are quite high in the aggregate, but they are explanable upon dissection, since the great majority of adverse findings are either canceled by TUEs, or they are found upon subsequent hearings to be barely over threshold levels (in particular TE ratios).

Since this is never explained to the public, they have no way of knowing how it is we get from several dozen adverse findings to only one or two suspensions.

Accordingly, I’m interested in knowing how the results will be presented.

  1. Who will know of adverse findings? Only the lab, WADA, and the ITU? Or will others be apprised prior to results management?

  2. Will this be transparent, that is, in the age group race there were 3 adverse findings but all were covered by TUEs, let us say? Or will there simply be silence on the matter of whether there were any adverse findings?

  3. Finally, I’m unclear how and when it is you guys are going to consider the paperwork presented by an AGer. You’re not requiring TUEs, but you’re saying that you’re going to sort of do a TUE determination on the spot, more or less. Is this prior to the race, or only after a positive A sample is returned? In either case, who adjudges this? Have you already decided on those who’ll man a review panel?

15

Very interesting stuff.
ITU announces WADA will also test age groupers at Hamburg World Championships
This report filed - August 16, 2007
By Timothy Carlson / from ITU release

The International Triathlon Union recently sent a letter to all national federations announcing that age group amateurs should be prepared to submit urine and blood samples for pre-and post-competition drug testing at the 2007 ITU Olympic distance Triathlon World Championship in Hamburg Germany August 30-September 2.

While the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), on behalf of the International Triathlon Union (ITU) has been engaged in rigorous testing of professional triathletes who might qualify for Olympic competition, age group amateurs have largely been left out of the official anti-doping testing until now.

For the first time, the ITU will require athletes taking part at the ITU Age Group World Championships to present medical certificates, including medical diagnosis and prescribed substances. The ITU statement asserted that their officials “reserve its right to evaluate their presented certificates and to deny the acceptance.”

While the number of doping positives among professional triathletes has risen, the IOC’s Dick Pound has speculated that wealthy age group amateur triathletes, who previously faced little or zero doping controls, might be engaging in performance enhancing drug use.

Dave

16

i hope this doesnt mean your going to weasel out of our little bet for vancouver, dave. maybe i should start looking for some left wing SF doper charity for your kind donation to be made?

18

I may be the test case. I only use Albuterol for cold water swims and this will be one of them(Hagg Lake, the other). I am filing an Abreviated TUE on Monday and we’ll go from there.
I’ll let you know what happened on September 5th.

Bob Sigerson