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Dr. Ross Tucker on Team Sky: "I had a slight disagreement with the way the committee framed their conclusion"

The publishing of a parliamentary report in the UK has increased scrutiny around Team Sky. Dr. Ro...



Dr. Ross Tucker on Team Sky: &...
Videos

Dr. Ross Tucker on Team Sky: "I had a slight disagreement with the way the committee framed their conclusion"

The publishing of a parliamentary report in the UK has increased scrutiny around Team Sky.

Dr. Ross Tucker joined Monday's Off the Ball to discuss the report and speaking to Joe Molloy, he said: "I had a slight disagreement with the way the committee framed their conclusion because the TUE (Therapeutic Use Exemption) policy in anti-doping is quite clear and it specifically references "If, and only if" - the point behind a TUE is that you have to use it to treat an existing medical condition and what I found interesting is that the committee that produces this report says A. Wiggins had used this for preparation for events so they used this drug, it's a corticosteroid that cyclists allegedly used for really quick weight loss without loss of power - that's one of its benefits.

"So the committee has said that they believe he has used it in preparation for events - that's point one. Two, is that there's no medical condition for which it was required so they've got "A" and "B" and somehow they arrived that it's not doping!

"Now if you wan to get into the ethical, legal issues that one can and say that outside of competition - an athlete doesn't need a TUE for this drug which is actually completely bizarre - I can't understand how that still exists. 

"But my opinion is that if you are using a powerful medicine - this is not the stuff you pop down to the pharmacy for if you've got a blocked nose for - this is a powerful, powerful drug. If you're using that for performance reasons - you're doping! And so the question comes back to what is clean? That's not clean in my opinion. 

"If Wiggins has used it in-competition then it's even clearer  - then it's absolutely doping. So I think they've let them off a little bit lightly there and I think the thing that sticks to Sky as a consequence of this is that whether they are being unethical - that's the best case you can make and there's a good argument to be made that they've gone way beyond that into illegal," he added.  

The full interview can be heard here:

Dr. Ross Tucker on Team Sky: "I had a slight disagreement with the way the committee framed their conclusion"

00:00:00 / 00:00:00

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