DRUG chiefs are considering a blanket ban on the drug used by Bradley Wiggins before his 2012 Tour de France triumph.
Wiggins claims he used the powerful steroid triamcinolone to treat asthma and breathing problems – having got a TUE sick note – in the build-up to three Grand Tours between 2011 and 2013.
And it emerged last week that his former doctor Richard Freeman also provided British Cycling and Team Sky staff with corticosteroids medication at the organisation’s base in Manchester including the sports’ supremo Dave Brailsford.
Keep up to date with ALL of The Sun’s latest Sport news
Dr Freeman, who is at the centre of the UK-Anti-Doping (UKAD) investigation into a potential drug violation, ordered large quantities of triamcinolone – the substance Bradley Wiggins was legally given in the build-up to three Grand Tours between 2011 and 2013.
But Olivier Niggli, the director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) revealed yesterday today that they had set up a working party to consider a blanket ban on the drug IN and OUT of competition.
The drug can be legally used out of competition and in certain cases even in-competition but be believes the current system is open to abuse.
It follows a three-year campaign by UKAD to get the drug - also known by the trade name Kenacort - on the WADA full list of banned substances.
Former Tour de France star David Millar, who served a doping ban in 2004, has also called for it to be outlawed arguing that it was the most potent drug he took and WAS performance-enhancing.
Niggli, speaking at a Tackling Doping in Sport conference in London said: "Currently you can take it out of competition and in competition in certain ways and it is very hard to detect what the method used us. We all agree it's far easier to say no one can take it at any time.
MOST READ IN SPORT
"And we've set up a group to try to come up with a better proposal to how we can do it. I agree, the system as it is now is not good.
"In fact only those who are being honest about what they have been doing get caught otherwise you always say 'it was a cream' and you get away with it.
"The hope has been for a number of years that research would bring us a detection method that would distinguish the route of administration.
The reality is that it doesn't seem that easy to come up with a method to allow us to do that distinction. So this has been dragging on for a number of years and we are now at a stage where we needed to have a number of discussion about how we deal with that."
The news was welcomed by Nicole Sapstead, the head of UKAD which is investigating both British Cycling and Team Sky, who said: "If they were to introduce an outright ban, then great.
"Our view with corticosteroids is they are not always being administered in a way that is reflective of an individual's actual medical needs.
"That can't be right - when someone doesn't actually have a medical problem - to warrant use of it being given because it can have additional effects that they can then benefit from.
"I hope WADA will be in full listening mode and if they chose for a fourth year not to take on board what we are asking them to change - and we are not alone in that because the Canadians and the Americans are the same - then they will give us a full account of why they have decided not to go down that path.
"It is frustrating because IF there is a good counter-argument it is not being shared with us. We will just keep banging on the door."
Niggli also raised concerns at a leaked WADA report alleging that Mo Farah's controversial coach Alberto Salazar was giving the British star's training partner Galen Rupp up to 30 supplements and pills a day for asthma and thyroid conditions - all currently legally allowed.
He said: "Again, we are back into two aspects. One is anti-doping and the other is what is on the prohibited list.
"And you have to draw a line somewhere. I am asking medical doctors 'do you let a guy that who has to take 30 medications practice sport?' Is he fit for what he is doing?
"But this is not an anti-doping question technically speaking. This is really a medical-ethical question. Should you be allowed to do sports when you have a need for so many things?"
Millar said last year: “I took EPO and testosterone patches, and they obviously produce huge differences in your blood and you felt at your top level … Kenacort, though, was the only one you took and three days later you looked different. It’s quite scary because it’s catabolic so it’s eating into you. It felt destructive. It felt powerful.
"If it’s that strong we shouldn’t be allowed to take it unless there is a serious issue. And if we’re suffering from that serious an issue, we shouldn’t be racing. I don’t know how a doctor could prescribe it [before a race]. I can’t fathom it.”
Wiggins’s use of triamcinolone was revealed when the Fancy Bears hackers published medical data stored by WADA on their site.
Leave a comment