To be fair, if an athlete is in an organisation that works under the WADA banner and compete in countries and events run to WADA regulations for prohibited substances then it doesn't matter where you are based, WADA regs should be followed.

Again, I'm coming at this from cycling viewpoint but if it can be proved an athlete needs a banned substance for medical reasons (basically a doctors note) then there is something called a Theraputic Use Exemption which allows an athlete to take a banned substance 'legally'. Things like bronchodilators are on most cyclists TUE's. (On occasions at TUE can be awarded retroactively after a positive test but that a whole other can o' worms).

I understand what you are saying Aggs, but sometimes it can be possible to take a banned substance without realising it. For example, you can buy a Mars Bar in UK and safely eat it without worrying about banned substances. But in one country abroad Mars Bars looked identical, but as often happens with goods made for an overseas market, they contained different additives - one of them being a banned substance. You could argue that everyone should read all the small print on the wrappers, but sometimes these substances are named quite differently ...... this is what happened to a pro dancer I knew. She eat a chocolate bar that looked identical to the ones bought in UK. As I said - a minefield.

that sort of thing happens a lot - remember a skier who used vic inhaler not realising the one she bought abroad was different to those in her country and she had unwittingly taken a banned susbstance

It is one thing to take a banned substance by accident using over the counter medicine, it is another to visit a dodgy doctor. In the big scheme of things I think we need to remember though that a lot of actors and presenters are not entirely natural, whether it's through drugs, surgery, or anything else.

That may well be true, but the ruling about banned substances is only relevant to competitors, not to actors, etc.

As I said, a total minefield........

Hi Bendy - how are you?

Unfortunately, ignorance is not an excuse - and believe me, after decades following cycling, I've head if not them all then at least 99% of 'em. Any athlete these days (and I'd say competing dancers are athletes) who takes anything without knowing what's in it or trusts that an over the counter medication is going to be OK is at least super naive and more than likely going to come a cropper.

Add to that, any athlete who seeks the services of a doctor known to be a bit iffy, is going to be the subject of speculation even if for them there's nothing iffy going on.

Firstly, can I stress that I am aware that this whole issue is still all at the stage of being "allegations".

Secondly, can I offer a mildly tongue-in-cheek view of these allegations. (I think that this constitutes a "trigger warning" in the current jargon!!)

I do appreciate the points raised re the dancers concerned either having taken the "drugs" either totally legitimately or simply "by accident".

However, following on from the points raise by davegold & aggs, (above), it strikes me as odd that ....

"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world" ......

......they (allegedly) walked in to Dr. Bonar's - in order to get either their totally legitimate medication or their accidentally "not totally legitimate medication"!

Along with 150 athletes who also happened to have Dr. Bonar as their doctor!!!!

They chose to visit Dr. Bonar rather than popping in to Boots for an inhaler; and I'd be flabbergasted if Dr. Bonar sold Mars Bars in his surgery!

But I'm no doubt just a total cynic! #HiEverybody

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGYpsNpg1bw