Steve Simbler’s Olympic doping blog: An introduction

Firstly, to introduce myself, my name is Steve Simbler, and I am a pharmacist. Through working for 10 years in my company Premier Sports Medicals (which is now enjoying membership of the Mobilis Healthcare Group), I have been fortunate to be in a position to engage in dialogue with many doctors and therapists involved in sport, in order to help optimise medication therapies, and being able to advise on things like potential drug interactions, and cases where medications are ordered (genuinely therapeutically) that might transgress doping regulations.

I am also a tutor for UK Sport’s 100%Me education initiative which aims to inform potentially-tested athletes, parents and those associated with them about doping in sport, and what is expected of athletes and their support personnel. UK Sport have a wealth of resources available in their website, notably the Drug Information Database which offers anonymous help regarding admissibility of specific drugs in particular sports.

The issues surrounding drugs and sport are often far from funny, but in my experience there are often moments that can amuse as well as offering an insight into the world of athletes and their dependence (both physiologically and psychologically) on drugs, whether taken to enhance performance, or prescribed therapeutically.

Like the time I arrived at the medical room of a well-known football club with a delivery of anti-inflammatories that the doc had ordered, to be greeted by a player (on the couch) who announced with palpable relief, “about time – thank goodness lunch has finally arrived!” The sad thing was, that he was serious.

Then there was the time I was invited by a pro rugby team to observe pre-match taping etc in the dressing room. I found the experience highly informative, especially when one player pulled a Ventolin Inhaler out of his kit bag and took a couple of puffs. Nothing out of the ordinary so far, I hear you say. In case you are not aware, the doping rules stipulate that there are certain medications (Ventolin being one) that, if genuinely needed therapeutically, are allowed to be used as long as the doctor has applied for, and been granted something called a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE).

So I assumed that this was probably the case on this occasion. However, what happened next was, that this player passed the inhaler to the player next to him, who took a couple of puffs, then he passed it on, and it went round the dressing room with many players taking puffs – I wonder whether they all had been granted TUE’s. I’m sure they had???

There are several interesting topics which I plan to feature in this blog, notably the issues of supplements and their compliance (or otherwise) with doping regulations, significant changes in the doping regulations over the last couple of years, and also those due to come into force in 2009, the indiscriminate use of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatories in sport, management of medicines generally within sport, and many other relevant topics.

With the Olympics soon to take place in Beijing, doping issues will be brought into sharp focus. China doesn’t exactly have a shining record when it comes to doping. Casting our minds back to the Sydney Olympics in 2000 – prior to this, dope testing was almost exclusively carried out using urine tests. Because blood testing is invasive, and because of other considerations such as religious objections, and issues around sterility of equipment and infection control, the authorities were reluctant to introduce it for routine testing.

However, with the increase in the use of Erythropoietin (EPO) which also occurs naturally in the body, and thereby difficult to detect in a urine test at the time, blood testing became necessary. EPO is used by cheats to enrich the red blood cell count in order to enhance performance by increasing the blood’s oxygen-carrying capacity to muscle.

When it was announced shortly before the Sydney Olympics that blood testing would be carried out, China suddenly withdrew 27 athletes claiming that they were either ill or injured! Later on the admission filtered through that all had shown a suspicious or confirmed EPO test. Several of these athletes were trained by a particular coach whose athletes had previously smashed several track records in the 1990’s, and the role of coaches in the world of doping are again being highlighted with the questioning of Trevor Graham recently in the USA. More about this in the coming weeks.

Please feel free to leave your comments below about this blog entry or other relating issues you have.

Grass Roots Football LIVE

We are exhibiting at the Grass roots Football show to showcase our products and services from biomechanical assessments to training aids to the amateur sport market. We will be running competitions and great deals to visitors of the stand. Martin Haines of Mobilis Performance will also be demonstrating his courses in The Reds Theatre on Friday.

The day will attract both professional and grass roots coaches, managers, players, referees and club and league officials.

In preparation for this we have regularly updated news stories on the Grass Roots site plus we have a great competition to win tickets for the weekend. We are just in the last throws of organising our fantastic stand and we hope to make a great impact at the show.

Why not come to our stand (550). Test your skills on the Nintendo Wii and be in with a chance to win some amazing prizes. Or just see what great products and services we can offer you.