Marc Marquez Has Nose Surgery To Improve Breathing

By David Emmett | Mon, 02/12/2013 - 19:44

Marc Marquez has been back briefly to the operating theater today, where he has undergone surgery to improve his breathing. The reigning world champion was admitted to the Dexeus hospital in Barcelona, where he had an operation to correct a deviated septum, which had hampered his breathing through his nose. Marquez is one of a few riders who uses the nasal plaster strips to keep the nostrils open (see photo below). These strips are said to aid breathing through the nose, and with Marquez suffering a deviated septum, he may have had some benefit from the strips.

The septum is the mixture of cartilage and bone which separates the two nostrils, and if the septum becomes enlarged - a common occurrence after injury - then breathing through the nose can be more difficult. The surgery Marquez underwent is aimed at making the nasal cavity larger, and removing any obstructions, to help him breath more easily. Marquez will have to take a week of rest, before returning to the busy schedule of a world champion, which has included trips to Japan and Monaco. The press release from the Repsol Honda team appears below.

Marc Marquez at Laguna Seca

Marc Marquez undergoes surgery to improve breathing

This afternoon 2013 MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez had a successful surgery to correct his nasal bridge in order to improve his breathing through the nose. This operation was necessary due to a deviated septum that produced a respiratory obstruction preventing him breathing properly.

Marc decided to have this procedure during the brief break in his schedule. The surgery took place at the Universitari Quirón Dexeus Hospital and was carried out by Dr. Ángel Chartre, Chief of the Internal Medicine of Hospital Universitari Quirón Dexeus and Dr. Miguel Conti, otorhinolaryngologist at the facility.

Marc must now rest and will be inactive for one week.

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Comments

where surgery (actually slicing into people and removing and altering pieces of them) to alter the natural physical make up of an athlete is considered fine yet far less intrusive and dangerous chemical alternatives are banned.
This immediately after West's banning shows the obvious hypocrisy of this state of affairs.

BTW - this is obviously intended as performance enhancing (from his natural base) so why is it allowed?

The surgery is intended to correct a defect. Now Marquez can breathe like a person with a normal nasal passageway. This only brings him up to a normal level, not a supranormal level.
West had a substance in his system which is banned and not natural. Whether his claim of tainted supplements is legitimate or not can never be known. It is plausible but also a frequently used explanation.

So surgery is natural in your world view?

There is no 'normal person' as a baseline here, Marquez is a result of the expression of his DNA , both good and bad, which is what this surgery has changed his physiognomy away from.

For him this is now a super-normal level.

The supplements don't make people superhuman no matter what the press would have you believe, they cannot exceed genetic or evolutionary limits. By the way, it was a natural substance, many of them are banned. In fact there's no such thing as an unnatural substance, it's an ironically artificial distinction raised by those who wish to create demarcations where there are none.

Chemicals are natural - EVERYTHING is made of chemicals.

I have the same thing from tripping over whilst running on wet grass and breaking my nose. The cartilage in the middle of your nostrils enlarges and in my case, moves over to one side, almost blocking one of your nostrils - hence the 'deviated'.

This operation is remedial. Not performance enhancing.

When he gets out. It's normal practice in bike racing to optimise the airbox and then improve the intake to aid pressurisation.
It's known to improve lap times.

I had this done. My wife would notice me wheezing. Also while riding my bike when cold, I could see a large fogged area on the open side and a very small fogged area on the side blocked by the deviated septum.