Mailbox

Swimming World and Junior Swimmer, Jan 1999

"No Medications" A Hard Pill to Swallow

The following is one of several letters Swimming World received in response to "No Medications," which ran in the November "Mailbox." All of the letters voiced similar sentiment.

A letter was printed in Swimming World's "Mailbox" that really angered me. As the wife of a successful asthmatic swimmer (Kurt Grote), I cannot allow the misconceptions in that letter to go unanswered, and I hope that the anonymous-read: cowardly-writer of that letter will reconsider his or her point of view.

"The fact that so many asthmatics succeed at the highest levels of swimming suggests that the use of asthmatic medications gives them an advantage."

The author of this statement is ignoring some important points. First of all, asthma doctors often recommend swimming to their patients as a way to deal with the disability. The thin layer of humid air over a pool keeps the asthmatic's lungs moist during exercise, reducing the chance of an asthma attack, and the aerobic exercise increases the patient's lung capacity.

For young patients in particular, swimming can give a much needed boost of self-esteem, allowing them to participate in a sport on more equal footing with their peers. With so many asthmatics choosing swimming over other sports, it does not surprise me that a large percentage of elite swimmers are also asthmatics.

Next, while elite swimmers, both asthmatic and not, have a higher than average lung capacity, the asthmatic still lags behind the non-asthmatic. For example, if an asthmatic swimmer taking medication achieves 120 percent of average lung capacity and competes against non-asthmatics with 150 percent of average lung capacity, where is the advantage? Asthma medications taken properly confer no benefit beyond baseline.

Finally, it is only those who take oral (illegal) versions of these medications with the intent of achieving anabolic or stimulant effects and escaping testing who are cheaters. We must find a way to catch them without punishing those who need the medications to live (my husband would have died from asthma at age 5 without modern medicine). It would be tragic to exclude the group of swimmers that, arguably, benefits most from the sport.

AMY STUART HUNN Stanford, California

Never-ending Spiral

I enjoyed reading your editorial about USA Swimming's Code of Conduct (November). It addresses potential pitfalls of the new Code (and all other codes).

Our litigious society has a proclivity to issue or enact more and more codes, rules, etc. for every second of life and every life situation.

Only legislative minds benefit from this situation (by receiving fees in lawsuits). Doing that, we wind up in a neverending spiral-to cover more specific situations by a "rule" or a "code."

We cannot (and should not) codify everything, and we cannot enforce even a small fraction of existing codes even if we revitalized the Stasi or KGB with a dozen policemen for every citizen.

The problems we face today in a consumer society as well as in our world of swimming cannot be alleviated by any additional rules. Societal and individual moral and ethical standards have to change. Everyone has to be responsible for his/her actions, not worrying about following the crowd, being "cool," "in-tune" or worrying whether it is "popular."

We have become conformist and complacent about virtues we should promote and guard, and we try to cover up these shortcoming by "rules."

It is the moral and ethical complacency of each of us individually that promotes ways of thinking and behaviors that fall into descriptions like: "made out like a bandit" or "the winner takes all."

ANDREY MADDOX Beaumont, Texas People

Dr. Ron Injured in Auto Accident. Dr. Ron Karnaugh was injured in an auto accident on Nov. 12 in Philadelphia when another car ran a red light and broadsided him as he was making a turn. Ron suffered knee, hip, rib and whiplash injuries and is undergoing physical therapy. He was out of training for a week and was unable to compete at the World Cup in Texas. But Ron was a lot tougher than his car, which was totaled.

Sabir Stays Home. National Resident Team member Sabir Muhammad, who had been granted the first William E. Simon fellowship and was planning on training in Australia for six weeks under Coach Gennadi Touretski, never left Colorado Springs. The fly and free sprint star was told by Aussie officials that they were unable to find housing for him in the capital city of Canberra. (Yeah, right!) Muhammad still plans a trip to Australia...in 2000.

International Nups. Brazil's Olympic silver medalist Gustavo Borges, a graduate of the University of Michigan, and Spanish star Barbara Franco, who swam for Florida, were wed on Nov. 26 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The wedding was televised nationally in Brazil and was a major media event. The couple now resides in Florida.

Young Writes the Rules. USA Swimming legal counsel Rich Young has been asked by the IOC to serve on a panel charged with rewriting the IOC's drug rules. Young has consistently been an advocate of severe penalties for the use of performanceenhancing drugs.