So one of our key players in the ice hockey team got caught with too high levels of an otherwise allowed substance. Sweden is pretty outraged about this at the moment, not the fact that he tested positive, but how IOC and others handled the whole situation. The test was done on Wednesday and would normally be analyzed pretty quick and should there be a positive the athlete would know within 48 hours, normally. With our hockey player, they waited until today, until he was about to hit the ice for warm up with the team, to play the final against Canada. Now anyone knowing basic maths knows Wednesday to Sunday is a whole lot more than 48hours! He should have been told about this on Friday, or yesterday so the second test could have been done and analyzed before the game today. But no, it was released in the 11th hour, the coaches had to scramble together a new game plan in literally just minutes and what should have been an amazing day of the Olympics, turned into a day of sadness and frustration for many.
Now to the actual substance. This player has confirmed issues with allergy, and has taken the same allergy medicine for many years, his medicine is prescribed by his NHL doctor, his team doctor for the Olympics approved him to take the medicine, yet possibly in a lower dose than he would normally take, he's drug tested 4 times per year in the NHL and was tested by IOC back in January for the Olympics. All clear!
Now all of a sudden he happens to be marginally over the allowed limit of a substance that's in his allergy medicine, and not just do they not allow him to play the game of his career, but tell him just before the game!
This could have been dealt with in a much better way! Especially since it's not even an illegal substance for athletes to be on, many athletes take the same or similar medicine to treat their allergy! In Vancouver another athlete from another country was caught being slightly over the limit of the same substance, yet all he got was a warning, he wasn't stopped from playing with his team.
There are many reasons why a substance may be more concentrated in the body sometimes. It can vary with your hydration, activity, diet, sleep, when you last took your medicine in relation to the drug test, how your body is metabolizing the medicine at the given time and so on.
Should an athlete really have to worry about testing positive and being excluded for something they are totally honest about taking, that is prescribed by a sports doctor and approved by the team doctor and is taken for a very real medical issue?
That seems to be the case today, sadly!
I thought sports was meant to include people, but instead the IOC seem to be leaning towards discriminating very talented athletes who are doing very well in their sport despite living with a medical condition that without treatment LOWERS their ability to perform! Taking their medicine just gives the allergic or asthmatic athlete the same starting condition as the athlete who's not battling allergy or asthma, who of them wins depends on who hit the shape at the time of the competition, and who has the best skill in that particular sport.
Now if an athlete who is NOT having a medical condition and NOT declaring the use of a certain medication is found to have a substance in their system, that is doping!
If an athlete with a condition is taking prescribed medicine, declaring it in documentation and has it approved by doctors, there shouldn't be a problem. As I mentioned above, the reason the concentration of a substance may be higher can have many factors, even if the dose is the same or even lower.
An athlete with a medical condition shouldn't have to be excluded from the Olympics or choose not to participate just because of the risk that their prescription medicine might get above the limit, that's just a waste of incredible talent and many years of training! Unless you invent a way to keep track of allergy medicines the same way as a diabetic can keep track of blood glucose levels, it's just not possible to know what your current concentration of medicine is, and with the different life during Olympics compared to home, your body may change too.
What I wish for is that athletes with a confirmed medical condition and approved medication that they declare, should not get in trouble for just slightly elevated levels of a substance that's actually allowed!
Either that or the athletes who aren't battling allergy or asthma should have to breathe through a straw during competition so they're brought down to the level of an unmedicated athlete who has allergy or asthma!
Pure performance enhancing drugs, taken only for the sake of doping oneself to perform better, doesn't belong in sports at all! And of course, levels of a substance way over the allowed limit needs to be looked at so someone isn't overdosing with the intent of doping and hiding behind their diagnose!
But someone with a medical condition who's being treated medically by approved medicines and methods should have the same right to compete as those who are at full health!
With all this said. I do not think the outcome of today's hockey would have been different, maybe Sweden would have scored too if not being all shaken up by this and having to re-plan everything just minutes before the game, but I still believe Canada would have won and I'm very happy for Canada and very proud over our Swedish team for WINNING the silver, they didn't lose the gold, they WON the silver! It's the whole thing with waiting for so long before announcing the finds from Wednesday and excluding a team member just before the final, over a substance that is even allowed (and in this case only slightly over the limit) that I'm angry about, especially with someone else only getting a warning in Vancouver, and I would have had the same feeling about this no matter what nation the person competed for, it just happened to be someone from my own country who was affected today!
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