POSTED: May 26th 2011

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JOHN GOODBODY: Devil is in the detail which appears to be passing WADA by

THE JOHN GOODBODY COLUMN / An authoritative and exclusive series from Sports Features Communications

LONDON, May 26: In the fight against doping, accuracy and integrity are essential.

When the World Anti-Doping Agency was set up in 1999, it had many tasks. One was to be the storehouse of global statistics on doping, to be responsible for collating material so that informed policy can be made from comprehensive information. This has clearly not happened.

A recent report by EU Athletes finds that even in Europe, the continent where the campaign to combat drug-taking should be at its most sophisticated, more than half of all the national anti-doping agencies do not meet the reporting standards required by the WADA Code, which was established in 2003.

Based on the 2009 figures only 20 of the 49 actually provided annual reports, only 17 had adequate data and only 11 both published them and sent them to WADA. All countries signing up to the Code are supposed to file reports, such as the data on the tests carried out, how many positives there were and the action that took place.

It is not surprising that Philip Jennings, the general secretary of UNI Global Union, co-author of the report, which represents the service trade unions including professional athletes, says: "The lack of statistical evidence to support world anti-doping policy is a scandal. How is WADA developing its policies without the necessary solid statistical evidence ?”

Even WADA itself seems to accept this failure.

In a statement to Sportsfeatures.com, it said:”Wada is reliant on the co-operation of its stakeholders and, through the total acceptance and use of the Anti-Doping Management  Systems (Adams), is confident that together the collation of anti-doping empirical data can be enhanced.”

Note those words: “the collation of anti-doping empirical data can be enhanced” . . .  so one would certainly hope — and expect.

Policies challenge

EU Athletes, which represents 25,000 members in 15 countries, mainly in team sports, such as football and basketball, is using this failure as a wedge to challenge many accepted policies of the WADA. And it will get greater support if it  can show how inadequate has been some of the basic information in the fight against doping.

It is now arguing that because there is a lack of effectiveness in the present system, this is the moment and the climate to challenge what it sees as a violation of the athletes’ fundamental rights. EU Athletes is planning to complain to the European Commission, support an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights and also refer a case to the European Court of Justice.

What specifically it is objecting to is the need for the national doping authorities to know where every athlete is for one hour of every day so that they can be tested out-of-competition. And they point to the absence of positive tests in out-of-competition programmes (from the material that has been collated and published) of players of some team sports.

So it questions whether the system is  proportional?

Can’t the testing be targeted, they imply, at those activities where there have been extensive violations, principally cycling, body-building, rugby, weightlifting and powerlifting?

EU Athletes claims that it is not against out of-competiton testing for its members as a principle. Indeed, that is just as well, otherwise players would be able to improve their power, speed, size and endurance without any worry of being tested.

However, if WADA is going to have the status it needs to meet the challenges of these athletes, it must tighten up some of its procedures—quickly and extensively.

** JOHN GOODBODY covered the 2008 Olympics for The Sunday Times, his 11th successive Summer Games and is the author of the audio book A History of the Olympics, read by Barry Davies, the BBC commentator. He was Sports News Correspondent of The Times 1986-2007, for whom he received journalistic awards in all three decades on the paper, including Sports Reporter of The Year in 2001

Keywords · John Goodbody · WADA · EU Athletes

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