| Kevin
Hall's Wife Blisters Sailing Bureaucracy
By
Rich Roberts
For YachtRacing.com
Amanda
Hall, the wife of cancer survivor and U.S. Olympic
Finn class sailing representative Kevin Hall, has
spoken out bitterly about the "bureaucratic
obstacles" blocking him from a final drug clearance
to compete at Athens next month.
"Kevin
has endured logistically challenging mandated blood
tests, tedious and repetitive paperwork demands,
inconsistent and contradictory stipulations on his
time, his energy and his patience," she said,
"all the while keeping a smile on for the press,
keeping his optimism alive, and with little moral
support and advocacy from the very organizations
established for those purposes."
Hall,
34, is a former resident of Ventura, Calif., now
living in Bowie, Md. He requires a renewal of his
Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) that allows him
weekly injections of testosterone---a steroid normally
banned by the International Olympic Committee---to
compensate for the loss of his testicles to cancer
in the early 90s.
US
Sailing officials have maintained for months that
there would not be a problem. Olympic Director Jonathan
Harley wrote in an e-mail May 6: "There's not
a doubt in my mind that he will get an exemption
that will carry him for the next four or five years.
I'll go to the bank on that. We should have a definite
answer within a week."
Two
months later, with the Olympics five weeks away,
Hall is still waiting while he trains in Athens---and,
in light of the current anti-drug atmosphere weighing
heavily on the Olympics, growing more restless by
the moment.
Harley,
responding to a request for an update on the situation,
said on June
18: "Kevin has received approval to compete
in the 2004 Athens Olympic Regatta."
But,
although Hall's situation was of ongoing interest
in the sailing community, there was no formal announcement.
Harley
explained, "As the information is in essence
'confidential,' we did not do a press release. Matters
like this are supposed to be confidential. If word
gets out it can come from Kevin, not from [US Sailing]."
US
Sailing President Janet Baxter followed up on June
19: "We have operated all along as if he would
receive the required approvals, so the final paperwork
is not news and the details will not be published
by us. We want him concentrating on Athens, not
worrying about the testing process which has become
a real burden to him and to his family and fans.
He has been doing that, and the other issues can
be put aside."
Perhaps
it was better to keep family and friends in the
dark. The news was premature, at best, as Hall responded
in an e-mail to the sailing newsletter Scuttlebutt.
"I
only have part of my waiver," he said. "There
are conditions on my TUE stipulated by the IOC.
One of these is that an 'independent referee,' different
from the ISAF [International Sailing Federation]
Medical Commission, different from WADA [World Anti-Drug
Authority] and different from the IOC Medical Commission,
review my case.
"I'm
not sure to whom this has seemed easy, but we are
just over one month from the Olympics, and I still
do not have a final, all-bases-covered answer. I
first broached this issue to the USOC and the IOC
in 1995."
At
one point Hall was told he would know by July 2.
That became July 9 following an apparent procedural
blunder.
Amanda
Hall, an emergency medicine physician, said, "We
were told that the referee accidentally discovered
Kevin's name as it appeared on one of the documents
and now a second referee must be chosen. I am not
sure how to respond to this news except with horror
and disgust."
Until
recently Hall was reluctant to speak openly against
US Sailing, but now he and Amanda figure they have
nothing to lose.
Hall
said, "That Jonathan [Harley] and [Olympic
Sailing Committee chairman] Fred [Hagedorn] hide
behind 'confidential' is one thing. That they did
nothing until Amanda followed up with them a few
days ago . . . leads me to believe they still think
I'm over-reacting. And the pattern of little proactive
or enthusiastic activity from those two until the
word 'media' is mentioned continues. I don't feel
I need to cover for them anymore.
"It
seems now that media is the only leverage I have,
and at this point I agree that trying to get some
answers is better than sitting waiting by the phone."
Amanda
Hall wrote: "In the nine years of such demands
he has not ONCE demonstrated an elevated testosterone
level and not ONCE asked for anything more than
fair and equal treatment. As far as I am concerned
this is the last straw in a long line of stalling
techniques that amount to a spit in his face.
"What
may be a job to the IOC, USOC, ISAF, US Sailing
and WADA is a lifelong dream to the man I love.
What may be a simple bureaucratic hurdle to them
is a constant reminder to Kevin that cancer took
away his ability to procreate and threatened his
life at a young age. His courage and his determination
are a shining example of making it against the odds.
"Medal
or no medal, Kevin's success in Olympic sailing
is already a testament to the power and triumph
of a childhood dream, in spite of those who tried
to keep him down."
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