The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) will consider restoring caffeine to its list of banned substances after Australian Rugby Union captain George Gregan said he used it to enhance performance.
Wada director general David Howman on Wednesday said reports that Gregan and other Australian athletes were using caffeine to boost performance were disturbing.
Gregan on Tuesday said he’d been using caffeine tablets before matches — with the knowledge and approval of Australian sports authorities — since caffeine was removed from Wada’s list of banned substances in January 2004.
He claimed the caffeine could improve performance by up to seven percent, citing research at the Australian Institute of Sport. But AIS director Peter Fricker said Gregan’s figures on caffeine were inflated, saying any boost would be ”in the region of three percent”.
Howman said caffeine had only been moved from the banned list to a ‘monitoring list’ because Wada didn’t consider it was being abused as a performance-enhancing substance.
But he said if research proved that athletes had turned to caffeine to boost performance, it could be moved back onto the banned list.
The Australian Rugby Union reacted to Gregan’s comments by saying that because caffeine tablets weren’t banned, it didn’t have concerns about its national captain using them.
”That disturbs us,” Howman said in Australian radio interviews.
Wada’s list committee is now considering what substances should be banned for 2006 and will examine anecdotal evidence and research from drug-test laboratories before its makes a decision about restoring caffeine to the banned list, Howman said.
Howman said the Wada laboratory in Australia that collected test results from athletes was the only one in the world to register an increase in caffeine use.
”That indicates a little bit of a worrying trend,” said Howman, who also questioned Gregan’s claims about performance improvement attributed to caffeine.
”I’m not certain that there is scientific data that would back up a seven per cent increase in performance by taking caffeine tablets. If there were I’m certain we would know about it.”
Howman was unavailable for further comment when contacted by The Associated Press.
Gregan’s comments attracted criticism from players, politicians and sports administrators for setting a bad example to young athletes.
”I can’t understand how clubs would allow it. They might say, ‘well it’s a legal drug and there is nothing wrong with taking it,’ but it sends a bad example when you (take) pills like that,” Peter Costello, Australia’s senior finance minister, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
David Campese, the only Australian to have played more rugby tests than Gregan, said his former teammate’s admissions were ”stupid.”
”I don’t think he understands the true implications of what is a basic endorsement of this kind of substance,” Campese said. ”I know they’re not illegal but there are kids out there who look on George as a hero.
”… They’ll want to mimic their idols. More to the point, who’s going to supervise how many of these tablets the kids might take?”
Bernie Carberry, head of the Australian Schools Rugby Union, said Gregan’s comments were irresponsible. He told Sydney’s Daily Telegraph newspaper that caffeine should be put on a list of ‘dangerous’ substances for athletes even if its not restored to Wada’s banned list.
Gregan sparked the controversy Tuesday when he told reporters many of the Wallabies now take caffeine tablets under guidance of sports officials from the Australian Institute of Sport.
”Most guys take it before the game and that sustains them to halftime … You can get seven percent extra work output from taking these tablets and that’s a big increase at this end of sport.”
Chris Butler of the Australian Sports Drug Agency, which monitors and drug-tests athletes in Australia, said the group had no comment on Gregan’s use of caffeine tablets. – Sapa-AP