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Dr. Ross Tucker on Team Sky: "I had a slight disagreement with the way the committee framed their conclusion"

The publishing of a parliamentary report in the UK has increased scrutiny around Team Sky. Dr. Ro...
Newstalk
Newstalk

21.54 5 Mar 2018


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Dr. Ross Tucker on Team Sky: &...

Dr. Ross Tucker on Team Sky: "I had a slight disagreement with the way the committee framed their conclusion"

Newstalk
Newstalk

21.54 5 Mar 2018


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The publishing of a parliamentary report in the UK has increased scrutiny around Team Sky.

Dr. Ross Tucker joined Monday's Off the Ball to discuss the report and speaking to Joe Molloy, he said: "I had a slight disagreement with the way the committee framed their conclusion because the TUE (Therapeutic Use Exemption) policy in anti-doping is quite clear and it specifically references "If, and only if" - the point behind a TUE is that you have to use it to treat an existing medical condition and what I found interesting is that the committee that produces this report says A. Wiggins had used this for preparation for events so they used this drug, it's a corticosteroid that cyclists allegedly used for really quick weight loss without loss of power - that's one of its benefits.

"So the committee has said that they believe he has used it in preparation for events - that's point one. Two, is that there's no medical condition for which it was required so they've got "A" and "B" and somehow they arrived that it's not doping!

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"Now if you wan to get into the ethical, legal issues that one can and say that outside of competition - an athlete doesn't need a TUE for this drug which is actually completely bizarre - I can't understand how that still exists. 

"But my opinion is that if you are using a powerful medicine - this is not the stuff you pop down to the pharmacy for if you've got a blocked nose for - this is a powerful, powerful drug. If you're using that for performance reasons - you're doping! And so the question comes back to what is clean? That's not clean in my opinion. 

"If Wiggins has used it in-competition then it's even clearer  - then it's absolutely doping. So I think they've let them off a little bit lightly there and I think the thing that sticks to Sky as a consequence of this is that whether they are being unethical - that's the best case you can make and there's a good argument to be made that they've gone way beyond that into illegal," he added.  

The full interview can be heard here:

Dr. Ross Tucker on Team Sky: "I had a slight disagreement with the way the committee framed their conclusion"

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