Olympic doctors banned after defying ‘witch-hunt’

Team doctors at the London Olympics were blackballed after refusing to disclose patient information to the AOC.

Australian team doctors at the London Olympics in 2012 were ­issued with legal threats and blackballed from future Games after refusing to disclose to the AOC confidential patient information about athletes they had treated.

The Australian can reveal that as part of an investigation commissioned by the Australian Olympic Committee into suspected use of the sleeping drug Stilnox by athletes competing in London, Olympic doctors were accused of breaching team agreements and bombarded by up to a dozen legal letters.

The dispute culminated in the AOC disbanding its medical commission in May 2013 and severing ties with commission chairman Ken Fitch, a sports medico who was an Australian team doctor at the Moscow Games in 1980.

Dr Fitch was not involved in the legal dispute.

The commission, which is responsible for planning and managing the logistics, medical supplies and staff required for Olympic Games, was reformed a year later with new membership.

The doctors, physios and other medical staff who treat Australian athletes at Olympics all volunteer their time and skills.

The AOC banned Stilnox and other sleeping medications in the lead-up to the London Games in response to claims by swimmer Grant Hackett that he was ­addicted to the “evil’’ medication, a commonly prescribed sleeping pill. Athletes, coaches and team officials were threatened with ­expulsion from the Games if they were found in possession of Stilnox.

Athletes needing sleep medication were allowed to take up to two Temazepam tablets, so long as they were provided by either the director or deputy director of the medical team.

It can now be revealed that the decision to ban Stilnox was made by AOC president John Coates against the advice of the AOC’s own doctors.

The doctors, some of whom have been volunteering for Australian teams for as long as Mr Coates has been AOC president, were furious that a sports administrator with no medical qualifi­cations had dictated what medicines they could and couldn’t prescribe.

Although some of the team doctors did not like prescribing Stilnox, a medication known to trigger a particularly deep sleep, they were concerned athletes who had safely used the drug might not be suited to other medications and forcing them to go “cold turkey’’ would impair their performance.

A subsequent request by Swimming Australia to soften the ban in the lead-up to last year’s Rio Games to allow competitors to use the drug as a “last resort’’ was slapped down by Mr Coates and media director Mike Tancred.

The Australian understands that athletes secretly defied the London directive by taking sleeping medications banned by Mr Coates. It is not known whether this included Stilnox.

In the wake of the London Games, it emerged that a group of Australian swimmers took Stilnox during a pre-Olympics training camp in Manchester. An AOC-commissioned investigation by Bret Walker SC found the medication was misused as part of a bonding session.

This promoted a broader witch-hunt into the use of Silnox in London and demands for team doctors to provide confidential information. The solicitor who wrote to the doctors, Kennedys partner Patrick George, confirmed to The Australian that a legal dispute ensued.

“The doctors … provided co-operation to the investigation conducted by Bret Walker SC at the request of the AOC into the use of Stilnox by athletes at the London Games,’’ Mr George said.

“In the course of that investi­gation, some or all of those doctors were legally represented in respect of inquiries made of them.’’

An AOC statement about the findings of the Walker report said the Stilnox ban was supported by the AOC’s team medical director Peter Baquie and his deputy, Susan White.

It is understood this is disputed by the two doctors involved.

Dr Baquie and Dr White declined to comment to The Australian. Mr Coates did not respond to questions from The Australian.