Medical emergencies could occur during the Period of the Games that may necessitate the filing of an emergency TUE.
1. Your first course of action should always be to provide the best care for the athlete and to make medical decisions on the athlete’s health in consultation with the head team physician.
2. Next, check the appropriate resources to determine if there are permitted alternatives to the prohibited substance/method being considered to treat the patient-athlete. Be sure to consider the prohibited status (in-competition vs. at-all-times). The in-competition period commences 12 hours before a competition through the end of such competition to include sample collection.
3. If no permitted alternative is available, consider the athlete’s condition and then apply for a retroactive TUE as soon as practically possible with the relevant authority for those specific Games.
4. The TUE application and medical documents need to be completed by a USOPC physician on site who treated the patient-athlete. The TUE will then be evaluated by the appropriate TUEC under the ISTUE and the final decision will be communicated USOPC, WADA and the relevant International Federation.
5. The TUE decision would only be applicable during the Period of the Games, so if an athlete required the prohibited medication outside the Period of the Games, they would have to file another application with USADA.