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51a Hibiscus Coast Highway,
Silverdale, Auckland
Phone 09 4274541
 Fax 09 4274542
 Mobile 021969159
Email robert@missioncontrol.net.nz

TARGET SHOOTING
FOR THE DISABLED

ROBERT BERGER

I was introduced to target shooting for the disabled by Michael Johnson, current world champion. I became a paraplegic in 1975 after losing contact with my motorcycle seat at 60 miles per hour and gaining more contact with the steel crash barrier on the side of the road, but that's another story. During my rehab in the Otara Spinal Unit (Auckland New Zealand) I looked at several sports but because I was not into basketball, rugby or sport at all I moved on to other things such as running my own business.

Early in 2007, I had a go at target shooting with an air rifle. I was coached by Michael for a while using a borrowed gun from Parafed Auckland. After a short time, I decided to get more serious about the sport and bought my own rifle. Once I had my new Feinwerkbau 700 rifle I became more competitive and practiced harder.

My first job was to gain some Minimum Qualifying Standards (MQS). I had to shoot a score of 570 in standing and 575 in prone twice, to be allowed to compete in Australia. As a wheelchair user, standing is not quite the right description, but what it means is that you sit holding the rifle without any support from your elbows resting on the table. Prone is a similar position but with your elbows on the table. I eventually managed to get the MQS and I was invited to be part of the New Zealand Paralympic Shooting Team competing in the Oceania 2007 Event at the Sydney International Shooting Complex.

Although I came home without any medals, I came home with an international competition under my belt, a stack of experience and a whole lot of new friends.

Now the drama begins. A couple of years before I took up target shooting I had a heart attack, bypass surgery and had to go on a drug regime that included a Beta-blocker called metoprolol. This is a banned drug in shooting and according to WADA, (World Anti Doping Agency) has the ability to give a shooter an advantage over their competition. I dont disagree that a perfectly healthy person with a perfectly healthy heart would have reduced heart rate, but if they took a betablocker they would be a drug cheat. To shoot on a Beta-blocker a shooter must be granted a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE). I applied to the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) for a TUE and included a 24 hour halter monitor test which is a 24 hour recording of heart activity similar to an ECG. This showed that my heart rate was always higher than normal and should be proof that I did not have an advantage over other athletes. The 3 criteria set out by WADA to be met before a TUE may be granted are:

4.2 The Athlete would experience a significant impairment to health if the
Prohibited Substance or Prohibited Method were to be withheld in the course
of treating an acute or chronic medical condition.

4.3 The therapeutic Use of the Prohibited Substance or Prohibited Method
would produce no additional enhancement of performance other than that
which might be anticipated by a return to a state of normal health following
the treatment of a legitimate medical condition.

4.4 There is no reasonable therapeutic alternative to the Use of the
otherwise Prohibited Substance or Prohibited Method.

International Standard for Therapeutic Use Exemption, effective from Jan 1st 2009.pdf (134 KB)

IPC and WADA agree that I satisfy 4.2 and 4.4. However Both IPC and WADA say that I have fail to prove 4.3. Despite providing two complete 24 hour halter monitor tests which show that my heart rate never falls to a state of normal. I feel that the tests show this in black and white. However WADA then introduced a 20 year old study on "Healthy" shooters none of which had a heart condition. This study showed that only some of the shooters shot a better match while on a Beta-blocker. Not all those on the Beta-blockers showed an improvement and all those in the test started out with a normal heart rhythm. As could be expected the participants who were given a beta-blocker had a reduction in heart rate and because there heart rate was already normal they may gain an improvement in their shooting. In my case the constant higher than normal heart rate proved that the beta blocking effect of the drug Metoprolol (Betaloc) was not in fact blocking the beta receptors as well as it should even though I was on the highest possible dose. This means that the prohibited substance or prohibited method did not produce additional enhancement of performance other than that which might be anticipated by a return to a state of "normal health".

WADA and IPC both believe that I failed to prove this fact and completely dismissed the halter monitor tests as not sufficient evidence.

I took my appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) with the full support of Paralympics New Zealand (PNZ) . CAS listened to the evidence and the short story is that CAS accepted WADA's statement, where WADA "suspected" that I may have reduced hand tremor as a result of taking a Beta-blocker. WADA can only speculate because there is no test for hand tremor. WADA goes on to say that I have to prove that I do not have reduced hand tremor. On one hand WADA note that there is no possibility of testing for reduced hand tremor, but on the other hand say that I must prove that I do not have a reduction in hand tremor. To see the CAS Award click this link. Download CAS 2008/A/1574 Appeal by Robert Berger v World Anti-Doping Authority.pdf

Has WADA taken the Anti Doping Code too far? Are they destroying the shooting career of a disabled athlete because he has a disability? Should the Anti Doping Code be different for disabled athletes that have to take certain drugs to stay alive? Tetraplegic Shooters are allowed to take a drug to reduce their spasms, returning them to a state of normal or close to normal health. Is this the same as a cardiac victim taking a life saving drug that does not even return him to a state of normal health? Have the drug cheats screwed it up for genuine athletes? Why would WADA let someone go through the whole TUE application knowing full well that they will not allow Beta-blockers in sports such as shooting and archery? Should WADA make the statement, "Beta-blockers are not permitted in shooting under any circumstances, so we will not accept any TUE applications for Beta-blockers"? Do they have the balls to do that?