Oh my, now Olympic champion shooter Russel Marks criticizes Australia’s decision to ban sleeping pills and says it will cost the country medals at the London Olympic Games. Given the long distance Australian athletes have to travel to London and the jet-lag that will go with it, Mark says it will be unfair for Olympic team members like him to suffer for Hackett’s dependency problem.
“This will affect the amount of medals the team wins,” Mark told media outlets on Wednesday.
“If John Coates tells me I can only use sleeping pills for three nights in London, it will have an effect on my performance.
“If I don’t get a good night’s sleep it’s not worth me going, I need something to get me eight hours sleep.”
Former Olympic swimmer Travis Nederpelt agrees that this decision made so close to the Games could impact the performance of athletes by disrupting their routines. Despite having experienced some of the side-effects of using Stilnox when he once started sleepwalking on a plane, Nederpelt says the drug had a distinct advantage over other sleeping pills for athletes.
“I think it’s a legitimate thing to use as far as relaxing goes,” Nederpelt told The Australian newspaper.
“I’ve had really good nights’ sleep using Stilnox and come up feeling full of energy the next day. In my opinion, it was the only one that didn’t leave you feeling fuzzy.”
Read for instance The Washington Post and Yahoo! Sports
6 Comments
I told you @Rókur. Banning sleeping pills is stupid. Why allways start with a ban? INFORMATION is the keyword here. And jet-lag is just one problem.
What is so healthy about beeing a world class athlete? Allmost nothing.You push your self to the limit, and a lot of the time, beyond the limits of what your body can take, and that is not good for you. But it’s the prize you have to pay to be the best you can be, and better than the rest.People need rest in order to perform at the highest level. The highest level is a personal thing, but if your competition is resting better than you, because of a ban on sleeping pills, then what’s the point of doing all the hard work? You will never reach your personal highest level.We are not using sleeping pills, but would if we could…
@sverschuren Ze moeten niet zo piepen! Heb 6 maanden lang zonder slaappillen prima geslapen in Australië #misschieneendrankjehierendaar :p
@sverschuren of een m-line reis matras aanschaffen :)
@tomvangeneugden Werd vermeld op ecss congres brugge. Maar ze hebben reeds andere middelen onderzocht om slaap te optimaliseren #vooruitgang
@StijnCo mooi, was natuurlijk vooral beslissing nav de gebeurtenissen rond Grant Hackett. Ben benieuwd, interessant topic.
@sverschuren Hoe deed Nederland dat dan toen de OS in Australië waren?