In his Sunday Times article on Maria Sharapova last weekend, Lance Armstrong's troll (aka David Walsh) noted that Chris Froome, when asked a year ago to put a number on the percentage of riders guilty of unethical behaviour, using legal medication for purposes for which they were not intended, had said "40 to 50%".
Walsh says it seemed startling at the time, but not now, in the wake of the meldonium saga.
Well, I must have been asleep at the time, so I was startled this time round.
Froome was asked this question as a supplementary to what percentage of riders were still doping in his sport, which he put at 3 - 4%, while insisting he could not be sure.
Even more alarmingly, Walsh suggests some British athletes are encouraged to take prescription medication, like thyroxine, beyond medical requirements in order to gain possible performance benefits. He quoted a specific example.
And we know that athletes have been coached how to fail asthma tests to get inhalers prescribed.
One wonders just how far abuse of prescription medication extends across all sports.
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