blood doping in freediving

[bkey]

I have been doing recent research on blood doping for other sports and was wondering if anyone has heard of it ever happening in free diving competitions? for those who don't know what it is it's when you take blood from your self months before a comp, your body then regenerates the amount of blood you took so that you continue to function. but when there are only a few weeks until competition the cheater will inject the blood that he took out of himself months ago. this gives him a major benefit as it means there are more blood cells that can be oxygenated and so can perform at a higher level of performance for longer. so if you've heard of anyone disgracing freediving by doing this i'd be interested to hear. and would also like to know what sort of drugs tests competitors have to do before a comp.
cheerz

[trux]

There is not only autologous blood doping as you described. There are also other blood doping methods - for example homologous transfusion (blood from a compatible donor), and blood doping with hormone erythropoietin (EPO).

It is hard to tell whether there are some freedivers who take blood doping, since the detection methods are quite limited (especially for EPO), and blood doping may be well hidden. It means it is rather likely we won't know unless someone is caught doing it, or admits it himself/herself.

Currently there are no regular tests of hematocrit level watching for sudden inexplicable increases as it is the case in some other sports. The doping tests made after a competition or a new record, are standard WADA tests. Unfortunately WADA mostly tests for stimulants. Many of the banned substances are in fact counterproductive in freediving (may increase oxygen consumption), and oppositely there are big number of substances that would help a freediver but are not tested for.

Personally I did not hear about anyone doping, but time to time you may hear top freedivers accusing each other. Those accusations are not based on facts though, but rather on jealousy. So for example I remember Stephan Mifsud accusing Tom Sietas (there was indeed a mismatch at one of Tom's anti-doping tests, but it happens often and it is the reason why always two samples are taken). Mifsud himself faced severe accusation after refusing some tests, but the refusal was based on a financial dispute (the test costs around 500€ and once Mifsud had to pay it, although his record was then annulled because of a judges mistake).

I also hear frequent doping accusations among French freedivers, but they are probably based more on the fact that they do not understand why their top performances are mostly so miserable in comparison with the world top, or even in comparison with some French AIDA (non-FFESSM/CMAS) competitors.

Nevertheless, I heard those baseless accusations also from people close to the representation, and find it very dangerous because if even top freedivers and the federation management are persuaded doping is common, there is a higher chance they might attempt helping themselves too.

From this point of view, I really believe AIDA should be more pro-active in anti-doping policy and try bringing WADA to include new tests for freediving specific substances. Also monitoring hematocrit history at top freedivers might be worth of considering (although it may be controversial too in some cases). On the other hand, AIDA would barely find financial means and the logistics for doing anything of it, so I doubt it will happen any time soon.

[efattah]

I have received reports of EPO use by some specific high levels freedivers, but I won't name who since the evidence is circumstantial at best. The greatest strength of the evidence is that the source of the report is someone who is no longer involved or interested in freediving, and therefore would have little motivation to specifically discredit someone.

[trux]

Originally Posted by efattah

The greatest strength of the evidence is that the source of the report is someone who is no longer involved or interested in freediving, ...

Was the source referring to his/her own EPO usage, or to someone's else? If it was someone else, how did your source person knew about the doping exactly?

As I wrote, I also heard similar claims from people quite high ranked in our federation, who have very good contacts to the top competitors, but I was not able to get any clear answer from them whether their claims are based on real knowledge, on suspicion, or if they tell it just because they cannot believe someone could perform like he does without the use of doping. Personally, I have the feeling it was the later case.

[rxcnc2]

Originally Posted by trux

I also hear frequent doping accusations among French freedivers, but they are probably based more on the fact that they do not understand why their top performances are mostly so miserable in comparison with the world top, or even in comparison with some French AIDA (non-FFESSM/CMAS) competitors.

Similar in Italy.
More efforts about doping clearance would help, although as Trux wrote it can be costly and perhaps utopistic - see other sports.
However, increasing your blood quality is not the key to everything. Breathholding would benefit from it, but in DYN resistance, technique (and a good mono) are equally important parameters. In CWT and other depth disciplines, I personally think that equalization technique is the main asset.
I wonder if there are any drugs that help in this respect?