When he was a child, Michael Phelps spent a lot of time poolside, next to the lifeguard station - not because he was interested in swimming, but because he was so disruptive. An elementary school student told his mom that his Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder would prevent him from ever focusing on anything.

"His mom disagreed. She had seen him at swim meets. 'He might be rocking on the kickboard as he's waiting to swim,' she told the teacher, 'but he knows what he wants to do.'"

Phelps' ability to focus during competition seems contradictory for someone who took Ritalin as a child, but his passion to win gives him all the focus he needs. At the upcoming Olympics, Phelps will compete in eight events, and is aiming to beat Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals. Source: USA Today

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At a congressional meeting Tuesday, Major League Baseball officials and government leaders gathered to discuss doping in baseball. Among the more surprising discoveries was the information that "therapeutic use exemptions" for ADD-related drugs had more than quadrupled in just one year.

"'This demands an explanation. There's something fundamentally wrong [with] them going from 28 [exemptions] to 103,' said Dr. Gary Wadler, chairman of committee that determines the World Anti-Doping Agency's banned-substances list. 'If we had this percentage increase in the general population, it would be on the evening news as a national epidemic. It's an outrageous number.'"

The Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUE) clause allows players to fill prescriptions for medications that are otherwise banned, if approved by both a physician and an independent administrator. Wadler believes the 2006 ban on amphetamines is tied to the TUE increase.

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Labels: medications, sports, role_models

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