DRUG TESTING HITS WORLD OF BRIDGE
'We have to do it to get into the Olympics'
Trent Edwards
The Ottawa Citizen
The Ottawa Citizen
Random drug testing has hit the world of competitive bridge,
and elite players are worried they may be disqualified from international
tournaments for downing too many espressos, or using the wrong cold medication.
"I can't imagine how any drug could enhance your play in
bridge, but we have to do it in order to get into the Olympics," said Dave
Willis of Orleans, who has competed in international tournaments.
Competitive players face the spectre of having their
international tournament victories taken away after testing positive for one of
the many over-the-counter drugs banned by the International Olympic Committee,
such as caffeine and pseudoephedrine, which is found in many cold
medications.
"A lot of the people that compete are older, so I think a lot
of the medications they might use are on the list right now," said Doug Heron of
Ottawa, an international-calibre player and president of the Canadian Bridge
Federation.
Canadian rower Silken Laumann lost her team's women's
quadruple sculls gold medal after testing positive for pseudoephedrine at the
1995 Pan American Games.
She had taken Benadryl-D for her cold, because she knew
Benadryl was not banned by the IOC. Unfortunately, Benadryl-D, the decongestant
version of Benadryl, contained the banned pseudoephedrine
substance.
The idea of caffeine providing an unfair advantage in bridge
seems ridiculous to those who think drug testing is meant to discourage athletes
from gobbling down steroids to give them an athletic edge.
"Believe me, most bridge players want a clear mind, and I
don't know any drug that could help you with that," said Mr. Willis.
But Mr. Heron said players might get a mental edge from
caffeine during marathon card games.
"In bridge you may be playing 14 hours a day, and the
tournaments sometimes go on for weeks, so it becomes a stamina thing," said Mr.
Heron. "Most players use caffeine to stay alert, so I don't know how much that
would change the sport if they had to stop drinking coffee."
A 70-80-kilogram man would have to drink about three cups of
espresso in an hour to risk having too much caffeine in his blood.
"You'd really have to drink a lot of coffee to run the risk of
running afoul of the established threshold," said Mr. Lachance.
The World Bridge Federation, which governs international
bridge competitions, accepted random drug testing this year as one of the IOC
requirements it must fulfill in its bid to have bridge considered for inclusion
in the Winter Olympics. WBF organizers hope bridge will make an appearance in
Salt Lake City at the 2002 Winter Olympics as a "special attraction sport," on
its way to being recognized by the IOC as a full-fledged Olympic sport.
"This testing is normal in any sport," said Jose Damiani,
president of the Paris-based WBF. "It's normal to protect the health of the
players and I think it's absolutely normal that we proceed in this way."
The first bridge player drug tests were held this January,
when urine samples were taken from all semifinalists in the 1999 bridge world
championships in Bermuda and sent to a lab in Montreal.
Twenty bridge players, including four teams of two from the
men's world championship Bermuda Bowl and a similar number from its women's
counterpart, the Venice Cup, passed the drug tests.
David Silber, chief executive officer of the American Contract
Bridge League, which governs American members of the WBF, isn't certain the
IOC's drug list is a good match for a game like bridge, but he accepts the
testing as part of the process if bridge is to gain Olympic status.
"I'm not certain how much sense it really makes for bridge,
but if that's what it takes to get into the Olympics, we're certainly willing to
do that."
Mr. Heron said the IOC's drug list is geared toward physical
sports, and is inappropriate for bridge, which he calls a "mind sport."
"The list of drugs doesn't seem as though it's been given much
thought as to the kinds of drugs that would be taken by people in mind sports
versus those that would help you in muscle sports."
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