Wiggins denies seeking ‘unfair advantage’
LONDON: British cyclist Bradley Wiggins has defended his use of banned substances under medical exemption rules, saying he was not looking for “unfair advantage” but merely trying to mitigate the impact of asthma and allergies.
The first Briton to win the Tour de France, Wiggins has been the subject of allegations of hypocrisy over the timing of the medical interventions since his anti-doping records were among those leaked by cyber hackers on the fancybear.net website.
The data revealed Wiggins was given permission to take the powerful corticosteroid triamcinolone before his breakthrough triumph at the 2012 Tour de France.
“This was to cure a medical condition. This wasn’t about trying to find a way to gain an unfair advantage,” Wiggins told BBC TV in a pre-recorded interview to be broadcast on Sunday.
“This was about putting myself back on a level playing-field in order to compete at the highest level.” Wiggins’s former doctor at the Garmin Slipstream team, Prentice Steffen, told the BBC on Friday he was “surprised” the cyclist had needed triamcinolone, which convicted dopers David Millar and Michael Rasmussen said was a highly potent drug.
IOC CHIEF BACH PUSHES FOR REFORM
Danang, Vietnam: International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach said Sunday he wants governments to do more to combat drugs in sport following the Russian doping scandal that rocked the buildup to the Rio Olympics.
“This has had to happen together with WADA because WADA, in the fight against doping, is the platform,” Bach told the Olympic Council of Asia General Assembly. “We (also) need the commitment of government. Together with governments, we want to make WADA more efficient.”