Paris Olympics: swimmer fears drug-tainted Games this summer, says TUEs still being abused by athletes, doctors
- Kregor Zirk is training at Hong Kong Sports Institute, alongside Siobhan Haughey, as the world championship finalist prepares for Summer Games
- Swimming is under a cloud, after news that 23 Chinese athletes competed in Tokyo Games despite failing drugs test
Kregor Zirk, the Estonian swimmer training alongside Siobhan Haughey in Hong Kong, fears he will not be competing on a level playing field in the Paris Olympics.
Of even greater concern for Zirk is the liberal use of Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUEs), which permit athletes to take substances on Wada’s banned list for the treatment of medical conditions. A diagnosis for asthma, for example, lets an athlete use medications believed to enhance sports performance.
“A lot of athletes use TUEs, and have so many sprays and other things,” Zirk said. “They don’t need these [medications], but the doctors have written out a prescription.”
A 2018 report by Swedish broadcaster SVT revealed that 70 per cent of Norway’s medals at the Winter Olympics came from skiers diagnosed with asthma, that, according to Zirk “is a bigger issue than doping, and the issue Wada needs to look at very closely”.
Zirk said the Chinese doping affair had left “everyone a little bit disappointed in the whole system”, and harmed his relationships with drugs testers.
