The story behind the Simon Yates terbutaline scandal

On Thursday, it was revealed that rising British road cycling star, Olympic prospect and Orica-GreenEDGE professional team member Simon Yates had tested positive for the banned substance terbutaline.

Professional cycling has a sordid history of doping and to see a star member of the ‘new generation’ of younger professionals test positive caused a lot of cycling fans to bury their head in their hands.

The fact he rides for Orica-GreenEDGE puts at risk the longevity of the Australian team, underwritten by wealthy businessman and long-term cycling patron Gerry Ryan.

Simon Yates is not a doper. At least, not on the basis of this positive test.

There are a few simple facts that lead me to this conclusion.

The first is that Yates reportedly has a documented history of suffering from asthma and being treated for it.

Exercise-induced asthma is a controversial topic in pro cycling and endurance sports, but is apparently a common symptom of the extreme stress pros place on their respiratory systems.

A European Respiratory Journal found that “Supratherapeutic inhalation of terbutaline provides an ergogenic effect on muscle strength and anaerobic performance, but decreased endurance due to side effects.”

While itself a complex and debated topic – it’s fair to say that endurance cyclists need endurance a lot more than muscle strength.

It’s unclear that Terbutaline would have boosted Yates’ performance (aside from suppressing symptoms of asthma – which is performance-enhancing, but legitimately so). Let’s be clear – evidence of misguided/ineffective attempts to boost performance doesn’t make doping legal under WADA rules.

But Terbutaline has a legitimate use in treating asthma and at face value, it seems likely Yates would have received a Therapeutic Use Exemption to take it. A TUE is an exemption issued – under the WADA anti-doping code – by the sport’s governing body (the UCI) for an athlete to use an otherwise banned substance.

Orica-GreenEdge has claimed that the reason Yates didn’t have a TUE for Terbutaline is that the team doctor simply neglected to submit an application to the UCI. But, is that true? There is compelling evidence that it is.

Primarily, the fact that Yates (or Orica-GreenEDGE on his behalf) disclosed his use of Terbutaline on his doping control form – i.e. before the results were known.

Why would anyone disclose the use of a banned substance on a doping control form? There aren’t many reasons. It doesn’t happen often, either. The most obvious reason is that they thought that their use of the substance was legal under anti-doping rules.

Deliberately engaging in doping and declaring it on a doping control form is akin to a bank robber declaring their history of armed robbery on a job application, without ever having been caught and charged. It doesn’t happen much.

There are different medicines for treating asthma. It’s unclear as yet, but it seems likely Yates held a TUE for some asthma medications, but not Terbutaline. It’s a big error to make, but conceivable the team doctor was sloppy in not realising this, or just neglecting to apply for the relevant TUE.

It’s useful to compare Yates’ case with that of the Essendon Football Club and Maria Sharapova. In the Essendon players’ case, none of the players declared the range of injections they had secretly received from Stephen Dank on anti-doping control forms – the same type of WADA-sanctioned forms and rules.

That said, it seems that at least one player notified ASADA via other channels (i.e. without the club’s knowledge).

The Essendon players’ defence was partly that they thought the injections were legal. It’s not the point – which is to disclose all substances so that doping control can distinguish between results based on legally and illegally-used substances.

This is precisely what Yates did – presumably believing his use of Terbutaline had been cleared by his team doctor.

It’s similar for Maria Sharapova’s positive test for Meldonium. While she has claimed she thought its use was legal – it appears (to this author’s knowledge) that she still chose not to declare her use on anti-doping control forms.

So what will happen to Yates? He may be suspended, or may – in the best case – be cleared. If he’s cleared, there will almost certainly be some outcry from outraged observers. But if anyone is to be cleared, I’d put Yates near the top of my list.