strong>Norwegian national cross-country team doctor officially admits that a large part of the team is on asthma medication. But the president of the Russian Ski Racing Federation (FLGR), Elena Vyalbe, spoke about this more than once, but received a ton of criticism in her address. So who was right?
The term «Norwegian asthmatics» has long been the cause of skirmishes in the world of skiing and biathlon. Up to a certain point, the fact that the vast majority of Norwegians are on drugs was only mentioned in off-the-record conversations. However, then the patience of other countries burst. In particular, the boss of Russian skiing, Elena Vyalbe, during the 2019 World Championships, openly stated that the honesty of the competition is a big question because of the therapeutic exceptions for the Norwegian team.
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"Norwegians performed enchantingly at the World Cup. On the other hand, we are the best among the healthy. This is also nice … I think it's a disgrace: almost all athletes have therapeutic exceptions for very serious drugs. It's legalized doping. In our team, not a single athlete has therapeutic exceptions, not for any drugs at all! And here there is some overkill on the part of certain countries,” Vyalba said. >Then the Norwegian media, athletes and leaders took up arms against Vyalbe. However, quite a bit of time passed, and now the Scandinavians themselves admitted that more than half of the skiers of their team use medications for that very asthma.
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«From 50 to 70 percent of the Norwegian athletes participating in the World Ski Championships in Planica, Slovenia, have a diagnosis of asthma» and take medication for this disease. We can’t give a specific figure, but if you look at sports where endurance is required — both in cross-country skiing and in other sports, especially in winter, then this is quite the correct figure, ”quotes the doctor of the Norwegian national team, Ove Verangen, VG.
The Germans proved that asthma drugs help athletes. At the same time, the effectiveness of asthma drugs has long been called into question by the Norwegians. They claimed that they were forced to use them, allegedly because of the peculiarities of the country's territory and climate. Norwegian skier Ragnil Haga said that drugs help athletes stay healthy, but do not show improved versions of themselves on the world's ski slopes.
But researchers from the German clinic Ulm think differently. They received a grant from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for a tidy sum and carefully studied the issue. And they came to the conclusion that these drugs can increase efficiency and help athletes improve results by two to three percent with loads from an hour to an hour and a half. 12 healthy athletes were tested for the study.
Process leader Jurgen Steinacker, quoted by Sportschau, said that in elite sports this is a huge difference, which often separates victory from defeat. He urged WADA to tighten restrictions on the use of asthma drugs. Plus, they brought statistics, according to which athletes use such drugs four times more often than ordinary people.
We must pay tribute to the Norwegians, who themselves provided the statistics. Perhaps in this way they wanted to show that they know about the existence of the problem and are ready to provide an explanation. In any case, after this, I would like to see the reaction of WADA, which has turned a blind eye to «legalized doping» for a long time.