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pro9dg said:
Beta Blockers had a brief but significant part to play back in the 80s, when more than a handful of professional snooker players were found to have been taken them on a regular basis.

To understand why they were able to produce a performance enhancing effect is relatively simple. The drug is used to slow the heart rate down. Anxiety and nervousness create a rapid heartbeat. So the consequence of a BB is to increase
the length of time between beats. I have watched certain players who monitored their rate and then waited until the heart just 'boomed'. At this point the body is absolutely still and they launch their final delivery with an enhanced chance of a successful outcome.
BB had been banned earlier by Shooting authorities. Riflemen used this form of timing to pull the trigger (again using their body in the maximum stillness mode).

Prove it to yourself and you will see how it works. Then try it under pressure by shooting a tough case 9 ball for the match. You'll be soon winning a lot more matches. Let me know how you get on
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Hey, Doug! Long time no read. Good to see you posting. Hope you are doing well. I've been following Fabio's activities on the tournament trail, and it looks like he's having a good run. :cool:

I take a beta blocker called Atenolol. When I first started taking it, after trying two other blood pressure meds, it make me feel odd, not alert or relaxed whatsoever.

In fact, here are the side effects of the beta blocker Atenolol:

People with high blood pressure often do not feel sick, but the medication should be taken even when you feel healthy.

If atenolol is used for chest pain, it must also be taken regularly. It should not be used to treat symptoms such as chest pain when they occur.

Your doctor may prescribe other medications, such as nitroglycerin (placed under the tongue), to relieve chest pain.

Atenolol should never be suddenly discontinued, as this may worsen heart disease or blood pressure.

Atenolol Side Effects:

Common Side Effects of Atenolol:

Constipation, indigestion
Dizziness or faintness
Dry mouth
Impotence
Cold extremities hands and feet
Confusion
Depression
Insomnia, nightmares
Edema
Fatigue, lack of energy

Serious Side Effects of Atenolol:

Low blood pressure
Hallucinations
Sensation of pins and needles
Skin reactions, rash, hives, psoriasis
Blurred vision
Difficulty speaking, or hearing
Unsteadiness
Wheezing or noisy breathing

Seek medical help immediately if you experience:

Slow, uneven heart beats
Fainting, feeling light headed
Swelling of your feet or ankles
Shortness of breath
Nausea, fever, dark urine, loss of appetite
Depression

Why any professional pool player would want any of these side effects does not make sense to me.

Thanks for sharing a little history of the beta blockers and snooker. You are missed around here. Come back more often. :lovies:
 
Wada has been testing Europeans a long time. I was tested 2007 when I got second on 14.1 Finnish Champs. If I recall right, probably around 2003 at Pool in Finland at least.
 
JAM said:
Why any professional pool player would want any of these side effects does not make sense to me.
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You do realize that side effects are different for each individual, right? That some people may experience very little to almost no side effects when taking prescription medication.

I'm still not sure why you insist on using your own experience with BP medication as reasoning that Mario He should have been awarded leniency despite not going through the proper medical exemption process. Just because beta blockers don't provide you or someone else with an advantage doesn't mean it won't for someone else, and that's why it's on the banned substance list.
 
My new Das 4Q mechanical keyboard has warning lights. Comes in handy when posting on AzBilliards. Amazing what it can filter, which really enhances one's reading experience. :cool:
 

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Side effects of warning lights may include:

Stubbornness and the inability to admit you are wrong
Failure to comprehend how things work
 
Thank goodness for Facebook, a place where the air is clean and trolls cannot ruin a person's posting experience. :)
 
Official statement of the Austrian Pool Billard Federation: (I try to translate as good as I can)

Prior to the EuroTour in Klagenfurt NADA Austria has taken a dopingtest on the ÖPBV athlete Mario He. On the second day of the following EuroTour in Treviso/ITA, it was announced to the athlete, that there was found a forbidden substance in his probe. According to the statement of the sportsman, this substance could be part of a medicine against high blood pressure, which the athlete took for medical reasons, but was on WADA`s prohibited list. This substance has no performance-enhancing effects and therefore the athlete was not suspended by NADA. Nevertheless Mario He pulled out of the tournament immediately after the case was brought up to him and also has cancelled all other tournaments in the near future, because he wants to activly devote himself to solving the ongoing investigation.
Klagenfurt 22.11.2018

Original text:

Im Vorfeld der EuroTour in Klagenfurt wurde am ÖPBV Athleten Mario He ein Dopingtest seitens der NADA Austria durchgeführt. Am zweiten Spieltag der folgenden EuroTour in Treviso/ITA wurde dem Athleten mitgeteilt, dass eine nicht zulässige Substanz in seiner Probe gefunden wurde. Gemäß den Aussagen des Sportlers dürfte diese Substanz aus einem Bluthochdruckmittel stammen welches der Athlet aus med. Gründen zu sich genommen hat jedoch auf der Verbotsliste der WADA ausgewiesen ist. Diese Substanz hat keine leistungssteigernde Wirkung und daher wurde der Athlet seitens der NADA auch nicht suspendiert. Mario He hat dennoch das Turnier unmittelbar nach Bekanntwerden beendet und auch alle weiteren Turniere in der nahen Zukunft abgesagt da er sich ganz der aktiven Aufklärung des laufenden Verfahrens widmen wird.
Klagenfurt am 21.11.2018


So as it looks like, it is not NADA,WADA or any (blue-blooded?) organization, but Mario`s own decision to take a step back and to help clearing up the whole case.
And that is how a true athlete handles things. Big respect!
 
Oze147 said:
Official statement of the Austrian Pool Billard Federation: (I try to translate as good as I can)

Prior to the EuroTour in Klagenfurt NADA Austria has taken a dopingtest on the ÖPBV athlete Mario He. On the second day of the following EuroTour in Treviso/ITA, it was announced to the athlete, that there was found a forbidden substance in his probe. According to the statement of the sportsman, this substance could be part of a medicine against high blood pressure, which the athlete took for medical reasons, but was on WADA`s prohibited list. This substance has no performance-enhancing effects and therefore the athlete was not suspended by NADA. Nevertheless Mario He pulled out of the tournament immediately after the case was brought up to him and also has cancelled all other tournaments in the near future, because he wants to activly devote himself to solving the ongoing investigation.
Klagenfurt 22.11.2018

Original text:

Im Vorfeld der EuroTour in Klagenfurt wurde am ÖPBV Athleten Mario He ein Dopingtest seitens der NADA Austria durchgeführt. Am zweiten Spieltag der folgenden EuroTour in Treviso/ITA wurde dem Athleten mitgeteilt, dass eine nicht zulässige Substanz in seiner Probe gefunden wurde. Gemäß den Aussagen des Sportlers dürfte diese Substanz aus einem Bluthochdruckmittel stammen welches der Athlet aus med. Gründen zu sich genommen hat jedoch auf der Verbotsliste der WADA ausgewiesen ist. Diese Substanz hat keine leistungssteigernde Wirkung und daher wurde der Athlet seitens der NADA auch nicht suspendiert. Mario He hat dennoch das Turnier unmittelbar nach Bekanntwerden beendet und auch alle weiteren Turniere in der nahen Zukunft abgesagt da er sich ganz der aktiven Aufklärung des laufenden Verfahrens widmen wird.
Klagenfurt am 21.11.2018


So as it looks like, it is not NADA,WADA or any (blue-blooded?) organization, but Mario`s own decision to take a step back and to help clearing up the whole case.
And that is how a true athlete handles things. Big respect!
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I don’t understand that. If the substance has no performance-enhancing effect, why is it banned? And if he was found to have a banned substance, why was no action taken against him?
 
BRussell said:
I don’t understand that. If the substance has no performance-enhancing effect, why is it banned? And if he was found to have a banned substance, why was no action taken against him?
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It might include a diuretic or other masking agent.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
It might also be up to the sport’s federation to impose a penalty based on WADA findings. I’m not sure of this. But that might explain the statement from Mario’s pool federation. I’d want to see a statement from WADA for the other side of the story.
 
Performance enhancing drugs are rampant in Olympic Weightlifting. All of Russia and a couple of other countries were banned from international competition for the last year. The International Olympic Committee even made the International Weightlftin Federation make all new weight classes. This effectively erased all world records going forward. They also changed the number of weight classes from 10 each male/female to 7 each. This resulted in about 30% fewer weightlifting athletes in the Olympic Games. Some of the weightlifting community even thought that the entire sport would be thrown out of the Olympics entirely.

The IOC for sure will look at how many pool players have been verified to test positive if pool is ever considered for Olympic Games inclusion.

IMO of course;)
 
BRussell said:
Good point, that would be an example of a banned but not performance-enhancing drug.
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Also some may for example not make you stronger, faster or increase endurance but just mask pain to help you push through injuries etc. It's a complex subject. As always generally the rules are there for a reason. Cheaping and looking for an edge has been going on since the start of Olympics. Much farther back than most people realize. The onus is always on the Athlete. Once you have crossed the line it's up to you to clear your name. Ooops doesn't hold water. Being a good guy doesn't matter (Mario seems to be). Ignorance of the law won't excuse you. Thus is the new world order in sports. The ironic thing is Alex Kazakis and Mario are good friends and I believe travel around together and share accommodations. Even through I'm sure he didn't want it to go this way he must be thrilled and will make a fine replacement.

Many professional athletes take supplements. They always keep the last little bit of each can to ensure that if they get a negative result they can go back and show WADA the sample and they can trace back what happened. The cheating has become very sophisticated and thus the testing has become super sensitive. It's an arms race.

It sucks for Mario but this should be a wake up call for the sport.
 
BRussell said:
I don’t understand that. If the substance has no performance-enhancing effect, why is it banned? And if he was found to have a banned substance, why was no action taken against him?
Click to expand...

because the list covers all sports. it may for example be a substance that masks the use of steroids. many of the banned substances are just that, masking agents for ephedrine or roids
 
What we all agree on that this is unfortunate for Mario and we all hope his future is brighter than his difficult circumstance of the moment. His dream of playing in a Mosconi Cup is one we hope he'll fulfill one day.

Each of us is allowed to have an opinion over a) whether pool should require WADA compliance, b) what medicines should or should not be banned and c) on who needs to be tested and when, but in the end our opinion is not what matters.

Had Mario not known that Eurotour/WPA required WADA rule compliance, things would be more even more disheartening, but this is not the case by his own account. Mario's account is that a medicine change unexpectedly put him into noncompliance with WADA rules. The WADA rules are available to all who compete in any sport governed by WADA, and medicine changes, no matter how minor, should always be reviewed by both players and prescribing doctors to assure compliance or to determine that a special therapeutic use exception (TUE) needs to be arranged with WADA.

It can be argued that Mario was unlucky here, but by not taking the proper measures to ensure his continued compliance with WADA rules, Mario made a mistake and he knows it. Given the findings, he did the only thing that made any sense here, which was dropping out of the Mosconi.

As there appear to be extenuating medical circumstances here, Mario's hearing may lead to a less stringent ban from competition, but the rules, which are very clearly spelled out in WADA's documentation, were violated, and one must assume that a suspension of some sort is coming.
 
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All this red tape and crap for professional pool players who are lucky if they can earn 20 grand a year. It's ridiculous.

Mario He was taking a blood pressure medicine: "It’s unreal and like a nightmare, which I will never forget in my life. I have high blood pressure, which I have had since a young age and my mum has it as well. I got a medicine which was not on the doping list. However, it didn’t work and we changed the pill. The new medicine had the same name just with a Plus on it, so that‘s why I was not concerned about it."

This entire saga is sickening. These poor guys can't even earn a decent living, and they have a doping entity running around like the secret police ready to pounce.

Good grief!
 
American Olympic weightlifting members make even less than professional pool players. There is almost no prize money for tournaments, only throphys. And there is almost zero financial support from any organization for USA weightlifting. But, USA Weightlifting has tested clean for decades. They also have not won anything in decades due to being clean.

Your point of money being important is a non factor. Many sports have very little money, and are worse off then pool. Yet, the honor of representing ones country in international competition, and not be labeled a cheater, somehow guides many athletes more so then their financial compensation.
 
Pool is not in the Olympic Games.

Professional pool players, the majority of them, make peanuts. One must come in first, second, or third to break even for tournament expenses, and most times, the pro player is stuck mega bucks from previous tournaments.

Some European blue-blooded entity decides to test just a few assorted player willy-nilly, yet there's no Olympic Games. There's nothing to look forward to. The Mosconi Cup is about as good as it gets for professional players.

To compare pool to any other game/sport is not logical. Only in pool can anybody swim with the pros. There's no international ranking system.

The WPA, tournament directors, referees, and now blue-blooded doping entities make more money than pool players. In fact, they're making a living off of pool players while pool players scrape for crumbs. It is tragic, when one thinks about it, what these people are doing.

Look at the BCA organization. They sure as heck don't govern a damn thing.

And what has the WPA done lately to earn their fees? They need the monies to travel to the Midlde East and enjoy banquets in Saudi Arabia or Qatar and get treated like royalty, while the pro players sleep in their cars, eat at McDonald's, or sleep five to a room to save money.

What happened to Mario He is outrageous! :mad:
 
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