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Be informed, don’t get busted by WADA in 2017

Modifications to the prohibited substances list after an Olympic year full of cheating controversies

A woman walks into the head offices for WADA in Montreal
The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport has published the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) 2017 list of prohibited substances along with an outline of the modifications to the code that has been updated for the coming year.

Overall, 2017 saw no major doping scandals that exclusively implicated cycling. Femke Van den Driessche was the highest profile cheater caught using a motor at the U23 cyclocross world championships in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium. It was the first time that a cyclist was caught cheating with a motor since allegations of the use of the technology in pro cycling first emerged. She  was banned by the UCI for six years for technological fraud. A condemning report by Stade 2 then aired in April that alleged mechanical cheating was taking place at high profile UCI races in Europe. This prompted the UCI to step up checks at races and then allegation emerged that the UCI technical director Mark Garfield leaked information to possible suspects in an investigation at the 2015 Tour de France.

July’s McLaren Report confirmed that Russia’s sports ministry directed, controlled and oversaw doping and the manipulation of tests by Russian athletes and officials at the 2014 Sochi winter Olympics. Russia’s entire track and field program was banned from participating in the 2016 Rio Olympics and some Russian cyclists were prevented from participating though two-time convicted doper Olga Zabelinskaya won a silver medal in the women’s time trial.

British cyclist Adam Yates was given a four-month ban after testing positive for Terbutaline. His Orica-BikeExchange team explained the doctor failed to apply for a therapeutic use exemption (TUE).

In August, the Russia hacking group Fancy Bears dumped Olympic athletes TUE leading to scrutiny of high-profile cyclists like 2012 Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins who was found to have taken corticoid injections before major targets including his ride to the win in the Grande Boucle. Though within the rules, the use of a drug with performance benefits has come under close scrutiny so close to major races. David Millar came out and explained how he doped within the rules in a recent piece in the New York Times. The UCI then requested the drug, tramadol, to be banned by WADA which was subsequently denied to the UCI’s frustration.

Now, in order to avoid testing positive here are the modifications that WADA have made to the banned substances list. So if you can’t get a doctor’s exemption, you better not have this in your system when you race this coming season.

Added to the S6 category of stimulants was the drug lisdexamfetamine which is used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in adults and children. Nicomorphine, which is stronger than morphine is a strong opioid agonist analgesic that was added to the narcotics category.

A common asthma medication, salbutamol, has dosing parameters added on that make it clear that a 24-hour dose should not be administered all at once. Arimistane is a cortisol inhibitor that works to reduce circulating levels of estrogen in the body and is another example of an aromatase inhibitor banned under the hormone and metabolic modulators category while higenamine was also added to the list. Both can be found in food substances. GATA inhibitors and transforming growth factor-B inhibitor was added to the peptide hormones, growth factors, related substances and mimetics.

To see the full CCES prohibited list visit cces.ca and the WADA prohibited list at wada-ama.org

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