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Comment by RileyJames | Hacker News Reader

> tested positive for synthetic testosterone and the female fertility drug clomifene

Neither appear to be illegal (although require prescription in most countries) and neither are performance enhancing.

What is the purpose of these rules in this case?

The article says “The World Bridge Federation (WBF) is recognised by the International Olympic Committee and as such abides by World Anti-Doping Agency rules.” It’s unfortunate that nobody quoted in the article seems to realize the absurdity of this action, but maybe staying in the good graces of the IOC is too important to them.

> It’s unfortunate that nobody quoted in the article seems to realize the absurdity of this action, but maybe staying in the good graces of the IOC is too important to them.

Here are 2 of the total 10 paragraphs of the article:

Kari-Anne Opsal, president of the Norwegian Bridge Federation, said the drugs were “not performance enhancing”. In a statement on the federation’s website, she said: “Geir Helgemo … has previously played for the Norwegian national team and is our biggest star. Many within the bridge community know Geir and respect him.

“It is his responsibility not to take substances that are on the doping list, even though in this instance they are not performance enhancing in bridge. I feel for Geir in this situation and hope he will come back stronger after his ban ends.”

Perhaps we have different interpretations of those quotes, but I think they reinforce my point, which is that they take a “rules are rules” approach rather than thinking of if the rules actually make sense.

I don't know what clomifene does, but testosterone improves stress response, in the sense that naturally-fluctuating levels may be a disadvantage in that regard.

It's not a nootropic as such, but it could legitimately be called out as a performance aid in any high-pressure competition whether athletic or mental.

Clomifene is used to ameliorate the side effects of testosterone, some testosterone you take will be converted by your body to estrogen and clomifene blocks estrogen. Basically you take it to prevent breast growth.

> Basically you take it to prevent breast growth.

This.

Probably more well known by its trade name Clomid in the body building underground, it's often used towards the tail end of steroid cycles by men to prevent the onset of gynecomastia a.k.a. bitch tits.

The article says it isn't performance enhancing.

If the bridge association is blindly adopting rules meant to govern physical athletic performances -- or if the IOC is forcing them to do so -- then the people responsible are obviously a bunch of morons. That conclusion seems unlikely to be the right one, so I'll stand by my point until more information comes to light. I'm not professionally qualified to argue it either way.

"Kari-Anne Opsal, president of the Norwegian Bridge Federation, said the drugs were “not performance enhancing”."

So I don't think its reasonable to go looking to performance enhancement as a reason.

To me it does appear that they're following rules meant for actual athletes. How much choice they had I don't know.

So? Are you going to take some Bridge player's word over the medical consensus?

"Kari-Anne Opsal, president of the Norwegian Bridge Federation, said the drugs were “not performance enhancing”."

That isn't some Bridge player.

She isn't a doctor or a pharmacologist! Why would you even value her opinion when it is confirmed that testosterone has potent psychoactive effects? I don't care if she's the space pope of the galactic bridge federation, her opinion is voided by biological fact.

"The World Bridge Federation (WBF) is recognised by the International Olympic Committee and as such abides by World Anti-Doping Agency rules."

How do you know testosterone isn't performance enhancing? There are clear replicated correlations to testosterone levels and spatial rotation tasks in the literature.

Why do purely mental games like bridge and chess have separate men's and women's tournaments?

For chess the are no men's only tournaments (on a professional level) but there are women's only.

The reason (in chess at least, which is what I'm familiar with) is to encourage more women to play chess, to close the gender gap formed in the first 150 years centuries of international organized chess.

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