WADA TO TAKE RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL DRUG TESTING IN TRACK AND FIELD

Photo: IOC President Thomas Bach speaking at the Olympic Summit (Getty Images)

The 2015’s Olympic Summit took place from October 12-14 in Lausanne, Switzerland, with representatives from more than 50 cities across all continents in attendance.

Joining the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) executive board, were leaders from 15 international sporting federations attended the information sharing and educational conference.

Coming out of the meeting is the proposal by IOC President Thomas Bach’s and his committee, following the Olympic Agenda 2020 reforms on the issue of doping and drug testing.

This is a proposal for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to take over drug testing on a global level.

Bach was quoted as saying “we cannot overstate the importance of good governance, which leads to credibility. We need credibility for our sports organisations as well as for our sports competitions. With regard to the credibility of sport and the protection of clean athletes, the Summit has taken a major step forward to making anti-doping testing independent from sports organisations.”

All the existing Olympic leaders agreed that drug testing should take place independent of sports organizations.

Meaning, the WADA body will take over drug testing on a global level, although no specific time frame was delineated.

This would mean an independent body will take charge of drug testing, therefore reducing any possible bias or controversy and increase credibility.

The current system is viewed by many as a conflict of interest.

With this new proposal, it is the testing itself that would be conducted by WADA, but the respective association and federations will be given the mandate to hand down respective and appropriate sanctions.