Anti-doping policy and procedure is a staple in the information diet of Canada’s Paralympians.
Early on in athlete’s time in Para sport, certainly by the time they’ve reached a provincial team or a national competition, they’ve been presented with information about how to steer clear of violating anti-doping codes.
However, for Paralympians, past and present, there can be barriers. Former national wheelchair basketball team member Jessica Vliegenthart is a lawyer whose practice is partially focused on sports law. She said during her time as a Paralympian there were plenty of “bumps” when it comes to the anti-doping process, including an awkward conversation with a doping control official who, by policy, was required to see the urine being collected.
“At that point, I don’t have enough hands to be able to hold the cup, and keep my balance on the toilet, and also hold my knees open,” Vliegenthart recalled. “So I remember saying to this lady, ‘Well, you’re going to have to get right in here then. Grab my knees so that you can see what you need to see.’
“And they were very thrown off by that.”
It may seem easy to abide by anti-doping controls — how hard can it be to not take performance-enhancing drugs? — but there are a wide variety of reasons why anti-doping education and testing is complicated.
Simple over-the-counter medications, such as those used to treat the common cold, can include banned substances like pseudoephedrine; hospital stays can complicate an athlete’s knowledge of what went into their body during that time; and the supplement industry, which is unregulated, can cause a positive test because what’s on the label doesn’t always correspond to what’s in the product.
Athletes do have resources they can access to check the status of their medications, like the Global Dro website, but their main point of contact is Canada’s anti-doping agency.
The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) is the organization in charge of overseeing Canada’s anti-doping program. Of the 126 Paralympic athletes heading to Paris, a select few athletes belong to programs are selected to be included in the registered testing pool (RTP).
Athletics, cycling, triathlon and swimming are the four summer disciplines of the six Para sports that have athletes in the testing pool. These athletes have to provide their whereabouts at any given time and be available to provide a sample. A missed test is considered a failed test, so the stakes are fairly high.
Disabled athletes have an additional concern: How do you make a testing methodology that is accessible to both able-bodied and disabled athletes? Kevin Bean, executive director of sport integrity at the CCES, said that it’s important that athletes and viewers of Para sport events understand the intricacies of the system.
“Most viewers of the Paralympics, I don’t think, will even understand that these protocols exist in the background,” Bean said. “Sometimes it can be seen as sort of, not a [necessary] evil, but sort of a negative. And I think the real point is that the system and the processes that are there are really meant to protect the athletes’ right to a clean competition when they’re participating in sport.”
WATCH | Canada’s Paralympic chefs de mission join CBC Sports:
With 100 days to go before the 2024 Paralympics open in Paris, IPC president Andrew Parsons joined CBC Sports’ Scott Russell to talk about how these Games will be different from any before it.
Provisions specifically made for disabled athletes have been part of Canada’s anti-doping code since 2004. They allow for disabled athletes to utilize support staff in the process of collection; to use different equipment, such as catheters, to collect their sample; and provide provisions related to accessible communication.
While anti-doping violations aren’t common for Para athletes, they do happen. Quebec provincial Para cyclist Tarek Dahab was banned this year for the presence of testosterone in his sample, which both he and Cycling Canada argued was for medical use.
Sometimes bans are also reversed, as was the case for wheelchair racer Jeff Adams, who took his case all the way to the Court of Arbitration For Sport in 2008.
Byron Green has been a member of the national wheelchair rugby team since 2013, at a time when Canada’s wheelchair rugby athletes were members of the RTP and were under intense scrutiny. He is also the athlete representative on the Wheelchair Rugby Canada’s board of directors and the president of their athletes’ council.
He said that the time the program spent as part of the RTP was difficult in some ways.
“We had the unpleasant task of filling out … a software program where we had to enter in our whereabouts every single day of our life for the next month at a time so that we could be tested,” Green said. “And we had to ensure an hour slot every day where we would, guaranteed, be at a certain location. “
One challenge for disabled athletes is related to therapeutic use exemptions (TUE’s). These exemptions are granted when a banned substance is used by an athlete for a non-sports purpose.
Marijuana and its use for chronic pain is quick to come up in conversation, but this can also apply to medications taken during a hospital stay or those required to manage pain. A process for retroactive exemptions exists, but the process is a stringent one and Para athletes tend to be on more medications than their Olympic counterparts.
Bean said that this is a need the CCES is well aware of and that they have taken steps to educate athletes about their rights when it comes to accommodations.
“There are certainly athletes from all walks of life who require medical exemptions, but there are a number of Paralympic athletes that may require them based on the conditions that they have. So that’s something that we want to make sure that they’re fully aware of,” Bean said.
WATCH | IPC president wants all tickets for Paris sold before opening ceremony:
CBC Sports’ Devin Heroux chats with Canada’s co-chefs de mission, Karolina Wisniewska and Josh Vander Vies, about leading the team to the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
Another aspect of the testing procedure that can be challenging for some Para athletes is the amount needed for collection and the time frames of the tests. In competition, athletes are often testing directly after they’ve come off the field of play. They cannot leave until their sample has been collected. Sometimes that can mean that the teams aren’t able to leave either.
That’s what happened to Vliegenthart.
“I remember, one time, holding the team up at the venue for like four hours. And the whole team wants to go back to the hotel and the bus has to wait for you … until you’ve given a sample that meets the WADA requirements,” she said.
Bean said that CCES’ staff training protocols, in addition to their informational resources, include educating those involved with the sample collection process.
“That protocol is set out and we want to make sure that athletes are sort of educated to the fact that they have these options to request modifications if they need them,” Bean said. “And as part of that, we also work to train our doping control personnel to ensure that they understand the process that should be implemented when testing a Paralympic athlete who might need a modification.”
Some of the specific adaptations available include providing support for a person who may not be able to visually read the procedural documentation, having an athlete support person close the sample bottle for the athlete, as well as provisions for when athletes may need to use medical equipment—like a catheter—to complete the testing process.
Vliegenthart’s advice to athletes going through the anti-doping protocols? Try to have a laugh.
“To be totally blunt, there’s not much choice. You kind of have to do what it is they want you to do to be able to continue competing. Try to keep a sense of humor about it. Do your best, that’s really all I can suggest, I think.”