Froome calls for rules on TUEs to be tightened
CHRIS Froome has admitted the TUE (Therapeutic Use Exemption) system is “open to abuse” and called on the World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA) and the Union Cyclisme International (UCI) to tighten up their rules.
The three-time Tour de France winner’s Team Sky have found themselves mired in controversy after Russian hacking group Fancy Bears released medical records which revealed that Sir Bradley Wiggins, both a team-mate and rival, had applied for and been granted permission to receive three injections of triamcinolone, a powerful steroid to alleviate breathing problems and allergies, each time before his main race of the season. One of those races includes the 2012 Tour de France, where the two men famously fell out.
Froome insisted that he never looked to “push the boundaries” of the rules, and that athletes need to take personal responsibility for going “above and beyond” in order to ensure that they also “set a good example morally and ethically”. Team Sky have previously made great play of their clear guidelines on ant-doping.
“I take my position in the sport very seriously and I know that I have to not only abide by the rules but go above and beyond that to set a good example both morally and ethically,” said Froome, who has a blank out-of-competition test on his record, after staff at an Italian hotel where he was staying failed to inform him of the anti-doping team’s presence.
“It is clear that the TUE system is open to abuse and I believe that this is something that the UCI and WADA needs to urgently address,” he added.
Callum Skinner, the Glaswegian track cyclist who returned from Rio with a gold and silver medal to his name, is another man whose data was hacked by the Fancy Bears group but the Scot yesterday released medical records proving that asthma is a condition from which he has suffered since childhood. The data hack showed that he was granted two TUEs – a fiveday course of prednisolone in November 2014 and a two-day prescription for salbutamol in January this year.
“When I went on Twitter and saw a headline with my name and stories with my picture I knew that people would be sceptical and think my TUEs could be questionable,” Skinner said, in a statement released to The Scotsman newspaper. “And to be honest, I sympathise. I imagine myself a few years ago, as a cycling fan. I would have read the headline, not bothered opening the article, and moved on, putting two and two together and concluding that it all sounded a bit dodgy.
“After the leak I resolved to release my NHS records, so I’ve spent the past week phoning doctors I’ve seen and the hospitals to which I have been admitted on four occasions having suffered asthma attacks. I was keen to make my records public to prove that my condition is real, but also to show asthma need not stop somebody competing at top level. ”