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Tuesday 5 November 2019

World Anti - Doping Agency (WADA) World Conference on Doping in Sport 2019: Day 1 Review



Hi Everyone



I hope all is well



This is a review post of my time spent at the World Conference on Doping in Katowice, Poland 5-7th November. 



Hope you find this useful



Enjoy!



























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I journeyed to Poland for the 5th annual Doping conference hosted by the city of Katowice and organised by the WADA. This has always been a goal of mine to attend a conference or event such as this, due to my passion for anabolic steroids, body image, image drugs and doping in sport. Since my A - Levels, I have been taking courses and workshops relating to doping and anti doping to understand it more. Which has led me ultimately to my fascination with the use of performance enhancing drugs (not just within competitive sports). 


For those that are interested, I have linked below related research papers and blog posts that you may find relevant to the content I will be discussing. These cover the areas of doping, anti - doping, body image, anabolic steroid use and other image and performance enhancing drug use; 






Now to get into the conference content, see image below;



Outline for the whole Conference Itinerary 





































Sessions for the Event are shown below; 

I have put the session titles in italics and numbered key points from each session.






Welcome Session






















Welcome was very long, so long it meant the conference itself over ran by 40 minutes with speeches from the Polish Prime Minister, Polish Minister of Sport, Mayor of Katowice, WADA outgoing President Sir Craig Reedie, and WADA celebrating it's 20th birthday. There was a lot to get through. Despite what may seemed a lot of repetitive thank yous and welcomes. It was interesting enough to say the least. 

See short snippet of WADA birthday celebrations below;






Onto the first session!




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Reflection on the Past 20 years and the Vision for the Future

Line up for Session 2 






















 Before I go into Session 2, it should be mentioned that Alan Abrahamson kept a tight rope on the time and asked great questions not only here. Also in Session 3, making the whole process very interactive. Great work Alan!
Main points from this session;

  •  Gene Testing to be used to detect blood doping. If approved, could be used as ealry as Tokyo 2020 Games
  •  WADA wants "cheaters to never feel safe" regarding their aproahc to testing 
  •  Testing at Olympics and Competitions to be done by independant bodies not by host nations
  •  Support of Governments needed to sanction atheltes entoruage fully. Power to snaction theme severly limited without this support presently 
  •  Dry Blood sampling new method of testing. Could revolutionise testing (likelihood its just an update to the athlete biological passport)
  •  Sir Craig Reedie; "If he says one regret it was spending too much time making sure everyone was code compliant as opposed to operationally compliant". 
  •  WADA can't run on a budget of $40 million dollars a year
  •  Ask panel for suggestions on money; 1% from every nations budget for sports goes to them to combat doping. 

My personal fav of the session was seeing Munashe Dangare from Zimbabwe say they hadn't heard about WADA until the conference. 

That ladies and gentlemen is a PR fail 




Onto Session 3

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Vision of the Anti - Doping Community for the Future 

Line up for Session 3 



This was by the far the most interesting session covering testing, criminology, trafficking, doping stories and more!

  •  WADA needs more funding to "level up" in its testing and research
  •  Frank Schwarzenbacher said; Athletes known to have doped who have not been caught             through testing shows there is a gap in the system
  •  Health risks are far lower now in dopers than back in the 1990's 
  •  Combined work of WADA/National Anti - Doping Agencies and local police to crack down on doping rings. 
  • Peter Van Eenoo says; many athletes have blood passport profiles which raise alarm bells.
  •  Unpredictable in Testing needs to be implemented to stop athletes getting comfortable



Brett weighing in his thoughts in Session 3 





  •  Loop holes are there to allow cheating. Example is the two missed tests (whereabouts) 
  •  Corruption is at all levels in less developed countries when it comes to Anti - Doping protection of athletes. 
  •  Clenbuterol x 100 
  •  Athletes only learning about WADA arriving at the conference. Better education and awareness is needed. 
  •  3x as many tests in horse racing (on horses) than on other sports. 
  •  Doping is a crime in some nations and needs to be a crime globally 
  •  1% of all nations sporting funding to go towards Anti - Doping funding. 
  •  Costs of testing is an issue 
  •  Chair of meeting asked about "can sport become clean sport instead of having 2 negative connotations. "Anti (1) and Doping (2)". 




My answer to the last bullet point is NO



Humans are flawed creatures and corruption/greed manifests in all of us even the best of us. Also in others, they don't see another option and have to take the apple from the snake in the tree (using Adam and Eve analogy) to get where they get to. Others may use drugs as its part of the sport and fitness industry be very hard to remove it. 







The rise of WADA has risen the rise of dopers. Their very presence invites challenge from scientists and doctors to beat the system! 



Using the above example I paraphrased it from Avengers Civil war where Vision talks to the team about their presence and number of incidents since their inception.






Onto Session 4



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Overview of the World Anti - Doping Code Review 


Members of the Exec explain new updates to the Code 
























2021 Code General Overview; 

  1.  Stakeholders' feedback was that the 2015 Code has worked well 
  2.  Unlike prior Code revisions, less stakeholder feedback on major principles and more on pratcial applications
  3.  Tradeoff between complexity and length vs harmonization and clarity 



How does the 2021 Code address the current elephants in the room? 


Role of the International Testing Agency (ITA)

IAAF and the Russian Doping Scandals

Positive Results from IOC sample re - analysis 

Prohibited Susbtances which are also Substances of Abuse 

Product Contamination Issues 















Over 3200 revisions made to the new Code!





































Delegated Third Party (Introduction and Article 20)


  1.  Delegated Third Party is a new defined term
  2.  Signatories are responsible for all aspects of Doping Control but may delegate any or all aspects to Delegated Third Parties 
  3.  Signatories remain responsible for ensuring that delegated aspects of Doping Control are performed in compliance with the Code and International Standards 
  4.  Certain officials and employees of Delegated Third Parties must agree to be bound by the Code or comparable Signatory Regulations


Anti - Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs) 

Slight updates to; 

  1.  Tampering (article 2.5)
  2.  Attempted Complicity (Article 2.9)
  3.  Prohibtied Associated (Article 2.10) 
  4.  New ADRV which is Whistleblower Protection (Article 2.11) 
4 refers to the following; 



The Prohibited List and Technical Documents

Slight updates to;

  1.  Atypical Findings
  2.  Threshold Substances (Decision Limits) and Non - Threshold Substances (Reporting Limits)
  3.  Specified Methods 


WADA's right to Take Possession of Samples and Data (Article 6.8) 



 WADA may, in its sole discretion, at any time, with or without prior notice, take physical possession of any Sample and related analytical data or information in the possession of a laboratory or Anti - Doping Organization. 



Results Management (Article 7)

  1.  Detail moved into the International Standard for Results Management (ISRM). Important Principles, particulary those which address realtionships between stakeholders, remain in the Code
  2.  WADA may require an Anti - Doping Organization (ADO) to conduct Results Management (Article 7.1.5)
  3.  Decisions by a Signatory (with limited exceptions for Major Event Organization) are automatically given worldwide effect. 





Code will be published soon, all information is shared here with the intent of informaing best practice and supporting the Anti Doping Committee.

Should be noted here the effort and time dedicated to making such vast improvements to the document. I didn't event state all the updates. Just ones I felt where appropriate.





Final Sessions 5 and 6 


 
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World Anti - Doping Code Review (Interventions)









The following image below show the members of the WADA Exec committee who ran the Intervention Sessions (5 and 6);




































This was when nations gave their thoughts and comments on the above 2021 code updates


I feel these are the stand out rule changes below;







Essentially rewarding athletes who dope with a lenient sentence when they admit to doping









ADRV regarding Whistle Blowing outlined below;








Yes there was stuff on Caster Semenya/Transgender Sport


But for a slide. That was it, pretty disappointing, maybe more tomorrow!








Great Speech delivered by the representative from World Rugby admitting they have to tackle the issue of Doping in their sport through the under utilised tool of education from the grass roots game and up!


Representative of World Rugby delivering a great speech on their Anti - Doping Movement 

























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Summary of Day 1 (or the TLDR version) 

This is the short version if you didn't want the detail. My main takeaway points from the day;

  •  WADA pledging more money to combat doping ($10 million to be exact)

  •  WADA calls for support from national governments for extra funding and support

  •  WADA developing new testing measures to combat doping (some to be ready by Tokyo 2020 Games) 

  •  Over 3200 revisions made to previous WADA Code 

  •  WADA  pushing for independent testing using approved labs separate from nations hosting events. In light of the RUSADA (Sochi Winter Games scandal in Russia

  •  New ADRV added and is to do with threatening or intimidating a whistle-blower will now count as breaking an ADRV. Whistle blower section added to 2021 code. 



































Future Events and or Conferences 

There are two notable events coming up in 2020. They are;











and



































Other Sources

I have suggested two great Twitter accounts to follow if you want more information and uip to date doping and or anti - doping news. They are;



  •  Dr Ian Boardley, his Twitter is @ mdsportex




  •  SportsLawUK, their Twitter is @ sportslaw_uk




Thank you very much for reading my recap of Day 1 of the World Doping Conference here in Katowice!



I will do the same for Day 2 tomorrow.



Kind regards



Andrew









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Andrew Richardson, Founder of Strength is Never a Weakness Blog





















I have a BSc (Hons) in Applied Sport Science and a Merit in my MSc in Sport and Exercise Science and I passed my PGCE at Teesside University. 
Now I will be commencing my PhD into "Investigating Sedentary Lifestyles of the Tees Valley" this October 2019. 

I am employed by Teesside University Sport and WellBeing Department as a PT/Fitness Instructor.  


My long term goal is to become a Sport Science and/or Sport and Exercise Lecturer. I am also keen to contribute to academia via continued research in a quest for new knowledge.


My most recent publications: 


My passion is for Sport Science which has led to additional interests incorporating Sports Psychology, Body Dysmorphia, AAS, Doping and Strength and Conditioning. 
Within these respective fields, I have a passion for Strength Training, Fitness Testing, Periodisation and Tapering. 
I write for numerous websites across the UK and Ireland including my own blog Strength is Never a Weakness. 
























I had my own business for providing training plans for teams and athletes. 
I was one of the Irish National Coaches for Powerlifting, and have attained two 3rd places at the first World University Championships, 
in Belarus in July 2016.Feel free to email me or call me as I am always looking for the next challenge. 



Contact details below; 

Facebook: Andrew Richardson (search for)

Facebook Page: @StrengthisNeveraWeakness

Twitter: @arichie17 

Instagram: @arichiepowerlifting

Snapchat: @andypowerlifter 

Email: a.s.richardson@tees.ac.uk

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-richardson-b0039278 



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Location: Katowice, Poland

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