Let’s analyze how Johnsrud Sundby and the Norwegian Ski Federation handled the press-conference, smoke-screens and outright lies. As a base I will use the English document they handed out to the press describing the “case”,
http://www.skiforbundet.no/Images/The%20Case%20-%20Engelsk%20versjon%20av%20Dette%20er%20saken[4].pdf
and the press-release,
http://www.skiforbundet.no/Images/1.2%20Pressrelease%20%28english%29.pdf plus some comments in the conference.
Martin Johnsrud Sundby has used the necessary and legal anti-asthmatic medicine Ventoline (salbutamol) in permitted doses.
Lie: The permitted dose according to WADA regulations is 1600 mg/day. MJS used 15000 mg in a time-span of 5,5 hours just before a race.
From the pressrelease:
The inhalation was administered by a nebulizer, where studies show that approximately 10 percent of the dose installed in the device, actually is inhaled and reaches the body.
This is actually not true and a part of the
smokescreen. As an example,
http://patient.info/doctor/nebulisers-in-general-practice states that many nebulizers are highly inefficient and distributes down to ten percent of the dose.
Firstly, I doubt that MJS and the NSF medical team are using the most ineffective nebulizers available.
Secondly the systemic effects of Salbutamol use are well-known.
Salazar and his highly successful Nike Oregon project with runners like Mo Farah and Galen Rupp have been using asthma-medication extensively. Following is a testimony from runner Lauren Fleshman
https://www.propublica.org/article/elite-runner-had-qualms-alberto-salazar-asthma-drug-performance:
“He said to breathe it in, hold it, and then breathe it out your nose slowly, because then you expose the glucocorticosteroid to the nasal passages as well, making sure that every single passage the air could come down is maximally opened"
At least we could suspect that this information is well-known for MJS and his team doctor. Nebulizer is in this sense a much better way to expose yourself systemically with Salbutamol doses than a metered-dose inhaler.
In the Norwegian press-release (not the English) NSF ski president Erik Røste states that Martin has not achieved any competitive advantages through his use of Ventoline.
This is
bold (false) statement considering following comments from Fleshman and the instructions from Salazar when she got permission to use asthma medication:
“After I got the medication, Alberto explained ‘this is going to be great for you; so many athletes once they got on this, did so much better than they’d ever done before’."
“He described the ways that could happen, that there’s a glucocorticosteroid in Advair and the possibility some of that could get systemically into your body and give you an advantage, and you can legally take it because you have asthma."
“Alberto encouraged me to push to be on the highest dose of it year round, which was something different than what the doctor had said."
It is also a bold statement considering an article published in Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter as early as 1993,
http://www.dn.se/arkiv/sport/astmam...-ny-undersokning-baddar-for-het-dopingdebatt/:
"New research shows that Salbutamol (chemical name on Ventoline) in tablet-form, in surprisingly short time, increases muscle strength considerably on young men".
MD Torbjörn Conradsson on Draco, the company who is marketing Bricanyl: "It’s hard to understand that one [tablets] is forbidden and the other [spray] is allowed. If you’re using spray a number of times it gives a similar effect as the tablets. If you want to dope with inhalator, you can".
Bertil Nyborg expert on Glaxo the company who is marketing Ventoline: "We have been doing testing that shows it has a performance-enhancing effect also on healthy people"
You could accuse Norwegian Ski Federation and Johnsrud Sundby of many things. Naivity is not one of them. They are in the fore-front of athletic research. Their explanations are actually intellectually insulting.
Finally CAS asked the NSF to answer the following questions:
1. A comprehensive list of all the medication (including dose and mode of
administration) taken by the Athlete before commencing the course of nebulized
salbutamol further to the call with Dr. Knut Gabrielsen on 7 December 2014.
2. A comprehensive list of all medication (including dose and mode of
administration) taken by the athlete from the commencement of the course of
nebulized salbutamol until 8 January 2015.
3. The prescription(s)1
in respect of the salbutamol taken by nebulization in
December 2014 and January 2015.
4. The name of the pharmacy where the salbutamol was purchased.
5. Proof of purchase of the salbutamol (e.g. sale receipt).
6. The precise name and model of the nebulisation equipment used.
7. The name of the outlet or hospital where the nebulization equipment was
purchased or sourced (as the case may be).
8. Proof of purchase (or sourcing) of the nebulization equipment.
9. Records of delivery of the salbutamol and the nebulization equipment to the
Athlete (e.g. courier receipts).
10. Contemporaneous evidence that the Athlete and/or his medical team analyzed
in advance whether the nebulization of 15,000 micrograms of salbutamol would
come within the permitted use of salbutamol on the Prohibited List.
Norwegian Ski Federation and Martin Johnsrud Sundby refused, but said they
if need be, to make oral
submissions. Please observe that this is Norway refusing to help investigate doping and not Russia!
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