“Based on our knowledge from previous studies, I am not sure if this is true,” Ove Ferangen, head of the medical team of Norwegian skiers in Planica, did not believe the new findings.
He knew about the existence of the study, which was created with the financial support of the world anti-doping agency WADA, and whose conclusions have not yet been fully published.
The head of the research team, Jürgen Steinacker, from the University Hospital in Ulm, Germany, said that the effect of anti-asthma drugs on performance in competitions lasting 60 to 90 minutes is obvious and quite significant, according to the study. The increase should be around three percent.
Photo: Matthias Schrader, CTK/AP
Star Norwegian skier Simen Hegstad Krüger at the world championship in Planica.Photo: Matthew SchraderČTK/AP
“For top sport, the difference is gigantic. He can decide the winners and losers,” Steinacker told Sportschau.
But Ferangen is skeptical of his conclusions. “This has already been addressed in previous studies, which have shown that drugs against respiratory problems have no effect on increasing performance. However, if a really large study proved the opposite, WADA would of course have to deal with it,” Ferangen pointed out, adding that the weakness of the latest study is that it examined only twelve athletes, which, in his opinion, is too few.
Even the successful Czech national team player Lukáš Bauer had a big fight with asthma during his career. In the current Norwegian cross-country skiing team, according to the head of the medical team, 50 to 70 percent of competitors use asthma medication.
However, according to the current WADA regulations, they are not breaking any rules. The permitted level is set at 1,600 micrograms of Salbutamol per day.
The biggest current competitor of the Norwegians, the Swedish national team (a total of 12 medals at the WC in Planica, of which 4 were gold) does not disclose the number of asthmatics in its ranks. However, according to SVT television information from 2018, at least half of Sweden’s Olympic medals since 1992 have been achieved by asthmatics who took medication. For Norwegians, according to SVT, it is 70 percent for the same period.
The sensitive topic of drugs for respiratory problems quickly caught on in Russia, which is still excluded from the international scene. Although the sport there has been burdened by a gigantic state-controlled doping scandal in recent years, the Russians do not miss the opportunity to rely on the legal use of drugs.
“Anyone who has a therapeutic exemption is a doping fraud, including asthmatics. The problem is the anti-doping agency, which allows this,” said the Russian national team coach Yuri Borodavko in an interview with RIA Novosti.
