Banned But Allowed: Inside the World of Therapeutic Use Exemptions in Sport / Pogacar's Dominance / World Indoor Championships

Become a member, keep us ad free! Plus, you get access to our world-class community chat, and live sport chat groups. Become a supporter for a small monthly pledge at Patreon. Show notes Today the Spotlight falls on Therapeutic Use Exemptions, or TUEs, that are given to athletes when they have a medical condition that requires the use of an otherwise banned substance. Last week, the International Testing Agency published the record of TUE applications for 56 sports, going back six years, and we cast our eye on some of the notable drugs, sports and cases. We explore why Growth Hormone TUEs are prevalent in gymnastics, why stimulants top the list of substances, and open up some philosophical conversations about whether TUEs should be allowed at all? Also in the show, a 'triathlon' of sports news, starting with cycling recaps of Milan San Remo where Pogacar produced an extraordinary display of dominance to win one of the two monuments missing from his resume, and from the Cape Epic, where women raced shorter distances than men this year, and we explore how the rationale for this is a little shaky. From the track, we look back at the World Indoor Championships from Poland, and in the pool, a World Record in the 50m warrants some musing on how records are fallen despite tech bans. And finally, Gareth notes with some pleasure that NFL superstars where humbled by flag football specialists, reminding us that getting to the top of any sport is not an automatic right! Links Thoughts on cycling and the need to question as read out by Gareth Cameron McEvoy's 50m freestyle world recor d The original ITA TUE Dashboard Paper from the Olympics showing prevalence < 1% in the Games The study on methylphenidate's performance enhancing effects Does gymnastics training inhibit growth in young girls? Intensive training and growth in female gymnasts Jon Pike's philosophy article on TUEs in sport World Boxing's statement on Lin Yu-Ting's eligibility Watch some NFL starts get bamboozled in flag football Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can listen to Banned But Allowed: Inside the World of Therapeutic Use Exemptions in Sport / Pogacar's Dominance / World Indoor Championships online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Banned But Allowed: Inside the World of Therapeutic Use Exemptions in Sport / Pogacar's Dominance / World Indoor Championships is an episode from The Real Science of Sport Podcast by Mike Finch.

This episode is 1:30:52 long.

This episode was published on Mar 25, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from The Real Science of Sport Podcast when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.