On a wet June 11, 2011 afternoon at the Adidas Grand Prix in New York, Jamaican sprinter Steve Mulling defeated his training partner, USA’s Tyson Gay, in the 100m in 10.26secs. After the race, Mulling was seen holding his chest and was escorted to a stretcher and given medical attention for about 15-20 minutes before he was able to address the media.
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Mulling having an asthma attack
at the New York D
iamond meet.
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Mullings gets medical attention in New York.
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It is well documented that the 28-year-Mullings suffers from chronic asthma, and the wet and cold weather conditions in New York did not help his effort.
Two weeks later he was in Jamaica competing for a spot to represent his country in Daegu and provided urine sample as required. Earlier this week news broke that Steve Mullings tested positive for Furosemide, which can be used as masking agent to hide or prevent the detention of other drugs. Furosemide is a prescription drug that is marketed under the name Lasix and is a diuretic used to eliminate water and salt from the body. Most importantly, Lasix is known to be used in the treatment of chronic asthma.
Since the result of the test was made public, Mulling has been chastised in the court of public opinion. It should be noted that Jamaica has a proud track and field tradition and there is zero tolerance among Jamaicans toward drug cheats. Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean believe in hard work and despise athletes who want to take the easy way out. Based on the drug that was found, this seems to imply that Mr. Mullings was addressing a health issue rather than a performance issue.
Caution should be exercised in the case of Mr. Mullings, who is a member of the Jamaican community and who, at this time, needs the support of his community. It shouldn’t matter whether he trains in the US or Jamaica. He wears his national colors when it counts.
Here is a talented Jamaican athlete who will be deprived of the opportunity to represent his country at the World Championships, because of what seems to be failure of his management team and medical personnel to do their due diligence and to provide proper notification to the IAAF of prescribed drugs being taken by the athlete. The IAAF may have considered an exemption in this case and would possibly have saved Mr. Mullings and Jamaica from this embarrassing episode.
The lesson learned from this unfortunate situation is that athletes are ultimately responsible for everything that goes into their bodies. Nonetheless, it is inconceivable that Mr. Mullings would intentionally take a banned substance after the 2004 drug ban experience and the constant scrutiny to which he has been subjected since his return in 2006.