TUEs and their use in sport

A post shared by bradley wiggins (@bradley_wiggins_official) on Mar 1, 2014 at 1:39pm PST

The recent revelations by Fancy Bears are, in my opinion, an attempt to create a story, where no real story exists; sour grapes that Russian systematic cheating has been exposed.

Athletes are allowed to take medications if they have a diagnosed medical condition, and the only medication that works just happens to be on the prohibited list.

To get a TUE you have to be objectively diagnosed (usually by two separate specialists) that you have the condition. This will usually involve clinical opinion, and the results of various tests. This information has to be submitted to the governing body of the sport, and for international competition, the international body, and for the Olympics, the IOC. It is a separate application each time.

So a British athlete would have to apply to UKAD/British Athletics, IAAF and the IOC for example.

In terms of the medication, they would have to prove that other medications have been tried already, and aren’t controlling the condition, and that the only medication that works, happens to be on the prohibited list.

The kind of medications that sports people get TUEs for (i.e. Insulin, Thyroxine, Triamcinolone which is a corticosteroid) are not particularly performance enhancing anyway, so it’s all legitimate as far as I’m concerned.

In particular asthma is a chronic inflammatory condition, and it tends to be exacerbated by hard training. So if you told athletes that they could only compete when they are symptom-free and off all medications, they would never compete!

• Exercise-induced asthma explained

Should athletes go public with their TUE’s? Not really, it’s not in the general public interest what diseases an athlete has. It’s private medical information.

Top image: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images

Dr Leon Creaney Consultant physician in musculoskeletal, sport & exercise medicine

About

Dr Leon Creaney is a consultant physician in sport and exercise medicine. He sees private patients with musculoskeletal, orthopaedic and sports medicine problems, and medical symptoms during exercise. Dr Creaney (BMedSci MB ChB MRCP FFSEM) trained in London at several prestigious centres including the Olympic Medical Institute, DMRC Headley Court (Army Rehabilitation Centre), The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and the Royal London Hospital. He qualified as a consultant in 2009, eight years after leaving the University of Sheffield. Since then he has worked as an NHS Consultant in Sheffield, the Department of Health (DH), and Aldershot Garrision RRU. He’s also worked for British Athletics and Liverpool FC women as a team doctor. He now works exclusively in private practice in Manchester, Wilmslow and Warrington. Dr Creaney treats all orthopaedic complaints from head-to-toe. As a physician, Dr Creaney uses a combination of physical therapy, injections and medicines to treat pain and injury, and works closely with leading surgeons to prepare those patients who need an operation.