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news
Dr Richard Freeman (picture credit Team Sky)Dr Richard Freeman claims he did not know testosterone boosted athletic performance
Ex-British Cycling and Team Sky doctor Richard Freeman has told a medical tribunal that he did not know that testosterone was a performance enhancing substance when he ordered 30 patches of Testogel to the National Cycling Centre in Manchester in May 2011.
The doctor made the claim on the final day of cross-examination at his fitness-to-practise hearing at the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester.
He has admitted 18 of the 22 charges brought against him by the General Medical Council, including having ordered the patches, but denies that he did so “knowing or believing” that they were intended for use by an athlete, reports BBC Sport.
At the time in question, Freeman was working for both the Great Britain Cycling Team and for Team Sky, which had begun racing the previous year and which initially recruited doctors from outside the sport, given its history of doping.
“I'm not a cycling fan, I'm a doctor in sports medicine,” Freeman told the hearing yesterday. “We were focused on managing athletes and there was this mantra that we were a clean team – it was never discussed.”
Asked for his opinion of the drug culture within cycling at the time, and whether he would have been aware of testosterone’s performance-enhancing properties, Freeman said: “No, I wouldn't have, really. I came into cycling quite fresh.”
He also insisted that the topic of doping had never been raised between himself and Dr Steve Peters, at the time the medical director of British Cycling.
“The main interest in endurance cycling was blood doping,” he insisted. “Dr Peters and I never discussed doping.”
Freeman joined British Cycling towards the end of 2009, and while he may not have had a background in the sport, his professed ignorance of matters related to doping is bound to raise eyebrows.
Besides the fact that a medical professional with elite athletes under their care would need to be familiar with the World Anti-Doping Code and the substances prohibited or controlled under it, there were a number of high-profile doping cases in the sport at the time.
Those included the confession by Floyd Landis in May 2010 – a year before Freeman ordered the Testogel patches – that he had used testosterone during the 2006 Tour de France, which he won only to be stripped of the title after failing an anti-doping control.
Freeman’s insistence that he was unaware of testosterone’s performance-enhancing capabilities is, presumably, limited only to the sporting sense – he has claimed that he ordered the patches to for former British Cycling and Team Sky coach Shane Sutton to treat an alleged erectile dysfunction – something Sutton strenuously denies.
> Shane Sutton raised concern about reputation of Chris Froome's coach in 2012
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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11 comments
To be fair to him, I'm not sure it's as simple as "testosterone boosts performance". I seem to recall there has been much debate about this. Testosterone can boost performance in some athletes, probably mostly those with naturally low levels... recent nvestigations into Caster Semenya, trans athletes and maybe others has shown that it's not as clear as we used to assume.
That said, he should probably be aware that it can boost performance, so maybe this was just his choice of words, or maybe semantics?
Top marks for this firm effort, you've phrased this just right, was it hard?
"Freeman’s insistence that he was unaware of testosterone’s performance-enhancing capabilities is, presumably, limited only to the sporting sense – he has claimed that he ordered the patches to for former British Cycling and Team Sky coach Shane Sutton to treat an alleged erectile dysfunction"
I can't work out if April Fools Day has come early or if it's just very delayed? What a fucking shitshow this whole thing has become.
He's not really doing himself many favours with regards to his ability to practice medicine again, is he
Christ no. I think the best we can hope for is he has some kind of road-to-Damascus moment and starts telling the truth but that seems a bit of a long shot at this stage.
I've known exogenous testosterone was performancing enhancing since A-level PE.
He is clearly not a well man and putting him through this charade shows how seriously the Medical proffession take mental health issues. It's an absolute nonsense. In my view accusations have been sprayed around for many years, a classic scorched earth approach, when the facts to back it up are fairly flacid!
I don't belive Freeman is a cheat and I don't believe he assisted riders to dope. In my view he is another victim of BC's bullying culture at that time.
The fact is he ordered a product that would be absolutely radioactive as far as BC's reputation and his own standing would be concerned, let alone any athletes who were involved.
And he's up to what, 3 lost/smashed/stolen laptops now?
We're all entitled to our opinions but as long as he keeps coming up with bollocks like this ^ it's hard to be sympathetic. 'I only lied that one time M'lud' is a pretty tough ask, especially when you're subsequently found out.
Is he a victim of BC's bullying culture? Probably. Does that excuse doping? No.
4 (if you include the one he's lost the password for)
If he had said "I was bullied into ordering testosterone" we could reasonably conclude that he was bullied.
But if he says "I'm just a sports doctor working for a sports team, I had no idea the sports team would use testosterone that I ordered, let alone that it might be a banned drug; who could have known that?" we should be drawing very different conclusions.
I do understand your point. My view is Freeman is not fit to stand; he is clearly unwell.
My decsion that he is telling the truth is based on what the people who are trying to nail him have said.
You genuinely believe that a doctor, one deemed worthy of supporting athletic performance at one of the world's most successful teams, didn't know that testosterone has performance benefits?
Surely if you are a doctor coming into a sport "fresh" to practice your craft, one of the first things you do is familiarise yourself with the list of banned substances, and those most commonly used in your sport, so you don't accidentally get yourself and/or your athletes into serious trouble.
Given how widely reported doping cases involving excessive testosterone are following positive tests, I would think a majority of lay people would be at least aware that it was ... a bit problematic.