SPORT

It will come to mind to anyone interested in swimming that the 2019 World Swimming Championships awards ceremony was a hot topic. It was that the gold medalist Sun Yang cursed at Britain’s Scott, who refused to take a picture with him, saying he was a loser. In this situation, Scott deserved criticism for not following the ceremony’s manners, but the arrow of criticism was aimed at Sun Yang. This was because Sun Yang avoided the doping tests of the International Doping Test Management (IDTM) inspectors that he had to take before the competition. Even though the World Anti-Doping Agency filed a complaint with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), Sun Yang was able to participate in the competition due to the delay in CAS’s ruling. That was the reason why Scott boycotted the award against Sun Yang, who unjustly won the medal. (Actually, it was later revealed that Sun Yang had taken a banned drug called trimetazidine, so he was suspended for eight years!)

The previous instance of Sun Yang and the Russian government’s direct intervention at the 2014 Sochi Olympics show doping management problems of international organizations. To prevent these intended or unintended doping problems, ‘sports pharmacists’, drug experts in the sports field were needed and sports pharmacology could be born.

Furthermore, it is noteworthy that the public’s interest in sports has increased. According to the “National Sports Survey” conducted by the Korea Sports Policy Research Institute, the participation rate in sports has steadily been increasing despite Covid-19. In other words, people’s interests are focused on health and well-being, and accordingly, the demand for appropriate OTC drugs has increased. These factors have led to the birth of a drug specialist who functions in sports.

Then, who are sports pharmacists and what do they do? Based on the activities of pharmacists in sports pharmacy presented by Mottram, we will discuss the basic knowledge that pharmacists should know and their role as sports pharmacists.

Awareness of sports medications

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is an independent international organization that promotes, coordinates, and monitors efforts to prevent all forms of sports doping around the world. The WADA updates the Prohibited List every year as part of its efforts to prevent doping through educational programs. For example, caffeine which was a prohibited drug in the past was excluded in 2004, and alcohol and cannabidiol as well in 2018. On the other hand, nebivolol, a β-blocker, was added in 2021. Since WADA’s drug list is constantly updated, experts are needed to systematically manage drugs. In a 2008 “doping awareness, view, and experience: a comparison between general procedures and pharmacists” study in Slovenia, the pharmacist group had a higher understanding of the drug as shown in the graph. It has been shown that pharmacists can act as advisors to provide accurate and appropriate knowledge to athletes and athlete support personnel.