Magnussen Says Stilnox Was Used As A Substitute For Alcohol

Stilnox was once again brought to the forefront of the swimming world earlier this week when it was revealed that Grant Hackett had made his way to Los Angeles to enter into a rehabilitation for what appears to be dependency on the drug.

It was almost a year ago to the day that the Australian men’s 4 x 100 freestyle relay team, dubbed the ‘Stilnox Six’, had to face the media and explain not only their use of the drug, but also their behaviour once taking the pill. World champion and Olympic silver medalist James Magnussen, the highest profile of the six, gave even more insight into the incident today, “It wasn’t for sleep in that instance,” Magnussen told the Sydney Morning Herald.

”It was, as it was reported at the time, an attempt at bonding and it, yeah … it went wrong. It’s really tough in a sport like swimming because the only times we come together as an Australian team is in the lead-up to big events and alcohol affects performance, so that’s not really an option for the swim team.”

Magnussen is not saying that type of bonding ritual is acceptable, but that was the strategy that the men’s 4 x 100 freestyle team used to form a stronger bond, “I am sure there are other options [for bonding] that the team management is looking into because it is a hard sport to bring a team together when we spend most of the year racing against each other.”

Neither of the situations that Magnussen shared are unique to the sport of swimming. There is a current investigation by the New Zealand Rugby League that is looking into the use of Stilnox by the British and French rugby teams at the 2013 World Cup. It is said that the reason for their use of Stilnox was for the same reason as the swimmer’s, a substitute for alcohol.

The original use of Stilnox in sport was to help athletes who were having difficulty getting to sleep because they had trouble with either the pressures of their sport or the timing of competitions. The side effects of the drug can be very dangerous. An article in the Brisbane Times published the official warning by the Australian drug regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration:

Zolpidem (another name for Stilnox) may be associated with potentially dangerous complex sleep-related behaviours which may include sleep walking, sleep driving and other bizarre behaviours. Zolpidem is not to be taken with alcohol. Caution is needed with other CNS depressant drugs. Limit use to four weeks maximum under close medical supervision.

In any individual sport it is a challenge for national teams to work together when that team is made up of individuals that compete against each other on a regular basis developing intense rivalries, “We have to beat each other to get on to the team and then we have to be friends again – it’s a tough dynamic. Coming up as a young swimmer you know you have ‘X’ amount of people in front of you and you need to pick them off one-by-one.”

”Once you get there you have to go back, be mates with them and swim in a relay alongside them against the best in the world.”

When looking at the make up of the 4 x 100 freestyle relay team we see the perfect example of how three men are trying to pick each other ‘off one-by-one’. Eamon Sullivan was the Olympic silver medalist in the 100 freestyle at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, at the 2012 trials Magnussen, who was only 21 at the time, took over top spot in the men’s 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle from Sullivan, who was 26. Magnussen eventually equalled Sullivan’s feat, winning the silver medal in the 100 freestyle at the 2012 Olympics in London.

Now enter Cameron McEvoy, who made the 2012 Olympic team at the age of 18, is already being called the heir apparent to Magnussen, who won the 2013 World Championships in the 100 freestyle. In that same race in Barcelona McEvoy finished fourth, only 17 one-hundredths of a second behind Magnussen.

Three men, representing three generations of swimming, all vying for the top spot in Australia, in an event that can be considered one of the most glamorous in the sport.

Magnussen made it clear when speaking with the publication that even though bonding as a team can be difficult it is a challenge that the Australian team has overcome, “Within the Australian swim team it’s fine to become mates,” he said. ”We do need that mateship. You’re taking on the rest of the world in a relay; [if] you’ve got four individuals swimming their individual race, it’s a lot harder [to win than] if you’ve got four guys who are swimming as one.”

He was also very straightforward about the current use of the drug in the sport, “‘In the current-day swimming, I don’t think it’s a problem at all,” Magnussen told the Herald.

”We don’t get prescribed it, I don’t use it, people around me don’t use it. It’s something that is not even spoken about within Swimming Australia today. It’s not a problem as far as I can see.”