YESSS!
I caught some kind of heavy-breathing enduced allergy athma back in 2003. It means that between July and October, I cannot do sports more intensive than darts or checkers.
I tried to get a waiver via my house doc, and failed. He doesn't have a clue.
the little racing I did the past years, was in the winter, or performing really badly in the summer. I do have Salbutamol for odd attackes of caughing,a nd to recreationally be able to do sports.
In my new sporting life, I was giving up to do sports in the summer, setting a new aim to one day complete winter triathlons, and compete. I would require a minumum amount of "dope" puffs to get by in to doing my girlfriend right (j/k).
Recently I found courage to again try and get a waiver, and was informed that the rules had become TOUGHER. Meaning it's expensive and dreadful to get it all approved, not nice if you have a day job and not private sports doc.
Thank you WADA. I am already reconsidering to do more summer sports!
Off-topic : I found that in my case, a time trial of ~1 hour prior to a pre-race course exploration, would be sufficient to "compete" in a mountainbike race. I would be further back than usual, but then, I've trained WAY less since getting my asthma.
Now to find out how much Salbutamol exactly is OK for my 85kg. Don't want to pull a Petacchi...
Requiring this simple medicine on THE list has been a serious turnaround in my life. It turns me into a patient, where I used to be a lung on wheels.
I still hate it to take a puff. I used to be able to get out of bed too late, rush to a course NOT pre-ride, and just place my bike unridden on the starting grid and KILL it from the first metres.
I see some summer racing in my 2010 future, thanks again WADA!