TORINO: Alpine: Maier tested a 2nd time after request for asthma medication

By Published On: February 22nd, 2006Comments Off on TORINO: Alpine: Maier tested a 2nd time after request for asthma medication

TORINO: Alpine: Maier tested a 2nd time after request for asthma medication{mosimage}SESTRIERE, Italy – Hermann Maier asked for permission to take asthma medication during a four-day break at home in Austria midway through his Olympic alpine skiing campaign, his agent said Wednesday.

Maier, who was tested by anti-doping officials in the athletes’ village before the opening Olympic downhill race, was tested a second time in Austria while waiting for the authorization to use the recommended asthma spray.

Asthma medication contains ingredients which are on the International Olympic Committee’s list of banned substances, but athletes who can prove they’re asthmatic can apply for an ”therapeutic use exemption.”

”Hermann was very ill and it was dangerous for his health,” Maier’s agent Walter Della Karth told The Associated Press. ”He underwent tests and consulted doctors. They decided he needed medication and he asked permission from the IOC.

”They made him wait for permission. But right after he asked, he was given another doping control in Austria. They only gave him permission after the second test, just one day before the super G.”

The double Olympic champion traveled to his hometown of Flachau after finishing sixth in the downhill, hoping the lower altitude would help his condition. Torino has been shrouded in smog at times during the Games and although the air is cleaner in the mountains, Maier didn’t think it was clean enough.

Sestriere is at 2,030 meters (6,660 feet) in altitude.

”Of course, he did not take the medication until he was given permission, otherwise there would be a real scandal,” Della Karth said.

Before the downhill race, Maier submitted blood and urine samples at the athletes’ village in Sestriere to doping-control officers who originally had posed as fans.

Team doctor Wulf Gloetzer said Maier’s asthma stems from his days as a manual laborer.

”He had an acute infection of his bronchial system and at altitude and with the dust in the air it was bad,” Gloetzer said. ”It is documented as asthma. It’s from his days as a bricklayer, he cannot support the dust anymore.

”It did not affect his skiing but he cannot train as well as at lower altitude. But he had less volume of respiration.”

Eight years ago at the Nagano Olympics, Maier won the super G and giant slalom only days after soaring off the downhill course and over two safety fences.

At these Games, he took bronze in the giant slalom, silver in the super G.

”This is not a big issue, he did well, he won two medals,” Della Karth added. ”But they waited until too late to give him permission because Hermann is in really bad condition.”

Austrians have excelled at these Games, sweeping eight golds and 16 medals overall.

But the nation’s most golden Winter Olympics have been overshadowed by a doping scandal surrounding banned cross-country coach Walter Mayer, whose presence among Austria’s biathletes and cross-country skiers triggered Italian police raids and IOC scrutiny.

Faced with increased numbers of athletes falsely depicting themselves as asthmatic, the IOC outlined tougher screening procedures that were introduced at Athens and implemented in Torino. Athletes have to show medical documentation and undergo lung function measurement tests.

Tests conducted at the 2004 Athens Games revealed that 45 athletes who described themselves as asthmatic did not in fact have the condition – 10 percent of the total that sought permission to take anti-asthma medication during the Games.

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