The complicating case of asthma.

Question: Do you test athletes that use performance enhancers?

Gary Wadler: Well, there will be some challenges with the Olympics I suspect because of the environmental conditions of the atmosphere. One of the major illnesses we’ve seen over the years has been asthma and some of the drugs that have been abused by athletes have been asthma drugs. So we have a fairly vigorous and rigorous approach to individuals who have asthma and require medicines to do it legally and not in violation of the international standards. So that’s gonna be one of the challenges that we have to deal with. And of course, there’s always the unknown, I mean things that nobody can anticipate like we saw in the Atlanta Games, a drug called Bromantan. We think the likelihood of genetic doping happening in the Beijing Games is pretty remote. What we’re doing in the World Anti-Doping Agency, and we’ve done previously, we have some experts who will be on twenty-four hour, seven days a week call-- I’m one of them-- in case something shows up at the Games that is totally atypical, unanticipated and needs technical clarification. We do have that mechanism in place to respond on the spot, if you will. And as far as the list of prohibited substances that you cannot take in Beijing, that list is operative as we speak because it goes into effect January of each year. Since these are the 2008 Games, the 2008 list has been in effect since January 1 of 2008 so all the athletes participating in Beijing have been made fully aware by their various international sports federations of what drugs and methods they cannot use or employ during the Games.

Recorded on: 04/25/2008