American sailor who requires testosterone gets Olympic OK

American sailor Kevin Hall, a testicular cancer survivor who requires a weekly injection of testosterone, has been cleared by U.S. and international governing bodies to compete in the Athens Olympics.

Hall won the United States' berth in the single-handed Finn class during the trials in February, but still needed clearance from various governing organizations because testosterone is on the IOC's list of banned substances.

Hall received a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) waiver on May 26 from the International Sailing Federation. But the ISAF added a number of conditions that were recommended by the IOC, including that an independent referee, chosen by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, anonymously review Hall's medical profile and approve his dosages.

U.S. Sailing Association official Fred Hagedorn said he received the paperwork on Wednesday in which the independent referee supported the ISAF in issuing the exemption.

"It's a great relief that our athlete can continue to focus on sailing and that everything that he has done to date has been shown to be correct," Hagedorn said by phone from Chicago.

Hall, who's already in Athens training, wasn't immediately available for comment. He's been frustrated by the process, though.

In a recent e-mail, he said: "We are just over one month from the Olympics and I still do not have a final, all-bases-covered answer. I first broached this issue to the USOC and the IOC in 1995."

Hall, who grew up in Ventura, Calif., and now lives in Bowie, Md., was diagnosed with cancer in the fall of 1990 while a senior at Brown University. Between then and January 1993, he underwent three surgeries to remove both testicles and lymph nodes in his abdomen.

Dating to 1992, he tried four times in three different classes to qualify for the Olympics. He finally earned a berth by dominating the winner-take-all Finn trials in February, less than a year after taking up the class full-time.

Hall's wife, Amanda, who had criticized the pace of the waiver process, said the approval should help her husband concentrate in his final weeks of training.

"Now that all of the IOC's conditions for approval are fulfilled, we should be good come race day," she said in an e-mail. "It is certainly a relief and will take a huge load off of Kevin's mind while he makes his final preparations for competition."

Hall, a veteran of two America's Cup campaigns, is in one of the toughest Olympic classes.

Great Britain's Ben Ainslie, one of the world's best Olympic-class sailors, has switched to the Finn after winning the gold medal in the Laser in 2000. Dean Barker, skipper of Team New Zealand's America's Cup crew, recently qualified for the Olympics.

Coincidentally, Hall and Ainslie recently joined Team New Zealand for the 2007 America's Cup.