THEY ARE PLAYING WITH PEOPLE’S LIVES
2012 Olympians speak out about being used as guinea pigs for ‘wonder drug’
BRITISH Olympians were used as guinea pigs to test an experimental substance in a secret UK Sport project costing hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money in a bid to enhance their performance at London 2012, a Sportsmail investigation has found.
Sportsmail can reveal that UK Sport, the British government quango responsible for funding Olympic sport, developed a ‘novel nutritional intervention’ to use in competition even though they couldn’t guarantee it wouldn’t breach anti-doping regulations.
A major investigation by this newspaper has discovered that 91 British Olympians were enrolled to take the experimental substance that had never been tested in competition previously – and had to sign waivers that meant UK Sport, which is funded by the National Lottery, was free of responsibility if it turned out to be dangerous or illegal. Athletes also had to sign gagging orders.
The substance, a synthetic version of naturally occurring body acid called ketones, was originally developed by scientists at Oxford University with $10million of funding from the American Department of Defence so that US Special Forces could operate for longer behind enemy lines with fewer rations.
While UK Sport had checked with UK Anti-Doping and the World AntiDoping Agency that the ketones weren’t illegal, internal UK Sport memos showed they could not guarantee it would always be WADAcompliant.
In the 2012 experiment, 28 of the 91 athletes using the substance – then administered as a bitter, unpalatable drink – withdrew from the scheme after experiencing unpleasant side-effects including vomiting and gastro-intestinal upsets.
Jo Pavey, five-time Olympian and European 5000m champion in 2014, said: ‘It’s almost like nowadays athletes can’t compete on the world stage unless they are doing all this rubbish. It’s depressing, as you feel there is so much going on with people doing all sorts of things to the absolute limit.
‘I feel it’s fine to use over the counter supplements like iron, zinc, magnesium but … the use of stuff like synthetic ketones is a step too far. It is not in the spirit of competition and may also be harmful.’
Emma Jackson, former GB 800m runner, said: ‘I’m horrified that [UK Sport] would test out an unknown substance on our athletes. Not only that, but then to make them sign waivers and non-disclosure agreements so that they could never speak out or complain if anything went wrong.’
A UK Sport spokesperson said: ‘The … project received independent ethical approval. Additionally, UK Anti-Doping confirmed in writing, after seeking clarification from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), that WADA had “no reason to consider such substances as banned under the 2011 List of Prohibited Substances and Methods.” Athletes are not put under pressure from UK Sport to take part in any research project or to provide their
consent, and may withdraw at any time.’
Pavey felt deep concern about the normalisation of such prohibitively expensive and potentially risky marginal gains.
‘It’s upsetting the way the sport is going with athletes trying to find gains they can get away with,’ said Pavey, who ran at London 2012 but wasn’t offered ketones.
‘Obviously there are people outright doping, but also it feels like some athletes are moving away from just training hard. It’s alarming that they’re trying to keep it all secret and getting athletes to sign waiver forms. Some athletes are trying to get marginal gains with something other than hard training. They’re trying to encourage something that isn’t available to everybody and might potentially cause medical harm if it’s not tested.
‘The use of stuff like synthetic ketones is a step too far. It is not in the spirit of competition.’
Jackson represented GB over 800m at the world championships in 2011 and believes the injuries which ended her career were caused by the high levels of a thyroid drug she was prescribed by a UK Athletics doctor.
UKA ‘refute any suggestion that a UKA medical practitioner sought to gain a performance advantage by over-medicating an athlete on thyroxine.’
Jackson was perturbed by the language used by UK Sport in the documents seen.
‘I’m horrified UK Sport would test out an unknown substance on our athletes,’ she said.
‘Not only that, but then to make them sign waivers and non-disclosure agreements so they could never speak out or complain if anything went wrong.
‘They are playing with people’s lives – a failed drugs test could be the end of someone’s career. I am also amazed that any athlete agreed to these conditions.’
UK Sport did check the product with the World Anti-Doping Agency prior to embarking on the research and WADA said that it was not on the 2011 banned list. The research was approved by the UK Sport Research Advisory Group.
However, waivers made it clear that UK Sport could not guarantee the substance would comply with WADA rules. UK Sport say waivers are standard and no athlete is put under pressure to participate.
Jon Brown spoke out throughout his career against doping and competed at three Olympic Games for GB, twice finishing fourth in the marathon.
He has since coached for Athletics Canada, where he now lives, and Triathlon New Zealand. He is a highly-respected voice on ethics in sport.
‘I’m not really surprised about it,’ he said. ‘Leading up to London there was an enormous amount of pressure to deliver medals with the amount of investment.
‘The whole existence of UK Sport probably depended on the results and the amount of medals Britain were going to win. If they had disappointed it would have been hard to justify the money going into sport.
‘Quite a few countries have these innovation projects going but they just don’t have the same financial backing.
‘It’s very frivolous, going out on a limb, spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on something that maybe didn’t work in the end. Where’s the accountability?’