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Anti-doping essentials

Most athletes worry about drugs that make you stronger or faster. Shooting has a different problem. Think about what would actually help a pistol shooter on the line.

Think first: Beta-blockers are common heart and blood-pressure medicines. Most sports allow them. Why might shooting ban them?

  • They sharpen eyesight
  • They slow the heart and damp the physical signs of nerves, which could steady the hold
  • They make pellets fly faster

Beta-blockers: banned all year

Here is the part that catches people out. In shooting, beta-blockers are banned in and out of competition. The ban does not switch off when the match ends: it applies at any time of year, including the off-season.

Beta-blockers, including propranolol, metoprolol and nebivolol, are prohibited in shooting both in and out of competition.

Think first: In the off-season, with no competitions for three months, your doctor prescribes propranolol for migraines. Can you just take it?

  • Yes: there are no competitions, so there are no tests
  • No: in shooting it is banned out of competition too, so you need a Therapeutic Use Exemption first
  • Yes, as long as you stop a week before your next match

Medical need and the TUE

A TUE is permission to use a banned substance or method for a genuine medical condition. Where you apply depends on your level.

Think first: You have an ISSF ID because you shoot World Cups. Where do you apply for a TUE?

  • To your national anti-doping organisation only
  • To the ISSF
  • Nowhere: a doctor’s note is enough

ISSF ID holders are International-Level Athletes and apply to the ISSF for TUEs.

Check every medicine, every year

The Prohibited List changes, and so do your prescriptions. Build a simple habit:

  • Before you take any medicine or supplement, look it up on Global DRO, the online medicine checker. Choose shooting as your sport.
  • Check both in-competition and out-of-competition status.
  • Re-check everything you use regularly once a year, when the new list comes out.
  • Tell every doctor you see that you are a tested athlete in a sport that bans beta-blockers.
  • If something you need is banned, apply for a TUE before you use it.

Whereabouts

Athletes in a testing pool must tell the testers where they will be, so that they can be found for a no-notice test. Getting this wrong has consequences of its own.

Any combination of three missed tests or filing failures within 12 months is an anti-doping rule violation.

  • 10 Mar 2027 — Missed test — Not at the address you filed.
  • 2 Aug 2027 — Filing failure — Whereabouts not updated after a change of plan.
  • 15 Feb 2028 — Missed test — A tester arrives at your listed training session; you had moved it.

Think first: An athlete in a testing pool has the three failures above. Is that a violation?

  • No: two missed tests and one filing failure are different things
  • Yes: all three fall within 12 months
  • No: they are spread over two calendar years

Alcohol

WADA took alcohol off its Prohibited List in 2018. Individual sports may still set their own rules.

Think first: Since alcohol is no longer on the WADA list, is it safe to assume a drink before shooting can never break a rule?

  • Yes: if WADA does not ban it, nobody can
  • No: federations can keep their own alcohol rules, so check the ISSF’s current position

The effects of alcohol on your shooting are covered in Food, water, caffeine and sleep.

Whether the ISSF currently runs its own alcohol testing, and at what limit, could not be confirmed from the rule sources. Check the current ISSF Anti-Doping Rules or ask your national federation.

What is at stake

An anti-doping disqualification at a championship does not cost one event. It wipes your results from every event you shot at that championship. Further sanctions can follow. The protections are simple: check, ask, and apply for a TUE in good time.

  • Beta-blockers are banned in shooting in and out of competition, all year round.
  • Genuine medical need: apply for a TUE before use. ISSF ID holders apply to the ISSF.
  • Check every medicine on Global DRO for shooting, and re-check once a year.
  • Three missed tests or filing failures within any 12 months is a violation.
  • Alcohol left the WADA list in 2018; federations may still have their own rules.

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