London: UK Sport has denied putting athletes' health at risk after a report claimed English Olympians had been given an experimental substance ahead of the London 2012 Olympics.
A daily claimed on Sunday that UK Sport had asked a selected band of 91 athletes to use an energy drink called DeltaG. The report also claimed that athletes had been used as guinea pigs with no guarantee that the substance would not cause side effects or breach anti-doping regulations.
However, UK Sport said they had consulted with both the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and UK Anti-Doping before using the product to make sure it complied with guidelines - and the health of competitors would not be put on the line for the sake of an improved medal haul.
Great Britain won a record 29 gold medals at the home Games to finish third on the medal table.
"UK Sport does not fund research projects aimed at giving our national teams a performance advantage at the expense of athlete welfare," said UK Sport in a statement.
"Consultation takes place with UK Anti-Doping and WADA wherever necessary to ensure projects comply with international anti-doping regulations."
Athletes were given waivers over holding UK Sport liable for side effects or positive doping tests as well as non-disclosure agreements preventing them from talking publicly about the project.
"UK Anti-Doping confirmed in writing, after seeking clarification from the World Anti-Doping Agency, that WADA had 'no reason to consider such substances as banned under the 2011 List of Prohibited Substances and Methods'," the agency added.
"UK Sport is fully committed to developing a high performance culture that is truly inspirational and one that will set us apart from our global competitors - but UK Sport will never seek to win medals at any cost."
The worrying sign is that 40 per cent of the athletes ended up with side effects including vomiting and gastrointestinal upsets. Because of this, 28 individuals stopped taking the substance for this season. A further 24 later pulled them out of the scheme as they thought the substance was in no way beneficial to them.
