WADA continues to observe and evaluate
During their last meeting in Montreal, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and its group of experts have examined the issue of integrating Tramadol in the list of banned drugs or not. The non-use of Tramadol in competition is a formal commitment of the teams’ doctors MPCC at the General Assembly in October 2013. The conclusion of WADA is as follows: “Tramadol is maintained for the moment in the supervision program on the 2015 list of prohibited substances and methods. The experts group will conduct an overall evaluation of analgesics, narcotics and tramadol included, during the year.” WADA adds that “recent discussions with experts of the pain management of athletes indicated that opiates or narcotics were more appropriate on a sports point of view, than other non-prohibited analgesics.”
Gérard Guillaume: “It is irresponsible to give this medication to a cyclist in the context of the competition”
WADA believes that the use of tramadol affects cycling more than any other sport: “The latest data collected by the control group continue to indicate that Tramadol is used more in cycling than in any other sport.” Referring physician with MPCC, Gérard Guillaume goes against this feeling: “Tramadol is used equally, if not more, in sports such as football, rugby sports where athletes receive shocks. But in these sports, Tramadol is administered as a pain-killer after matches. In cycling, the problem is that it is administered in competition, on stage races. With the sequence of races, Tramadol exposes the rider to health problems because of its side effects: drowsiness, dizziness. From a medical point of view, it is irresponsible to administer this medication to a cyclist in the context of the competition.”
A common sense request, from a health point of view ; a response from a purely anti-doping perspective
MPCC does not require the prohibition of Tramadol out of competition but in competition. “All sports are not exposed to risks in the same way. Speed sports are hardly compatible with taking Tramadol in competition. We ask a question from a health point of view. The stake is health and safety of the riders, not anti-doping. And WADA replies us just from an anti-doping point of view. We address a common sense request. Any doctor knows it and sees it every day with his patients: Tramadol causes real side effects.”