Oct 18 2009
New Anti-Doping Agency Created In Preparation for London Olympics
The host for the 2012 Olympics wants to make the next olympics clean and free from controversies especially when it comes to doping athletes. The country is aware that some professional athletes may still take the risk of using prohibited substances to gain competitive advantage. In every Olympic competition, many athletes are still found violating the IOC rules particularly the list of banned substances. The United Kingdom is now establishing new regulations and as well as created a new agency to monitor and prevent athletes from taking performance enhancing drugs.
A new agency which will be task to monitor more than 14,000 athletes in the 2012 London Olympics has been formed. The United Kingdom Anti-Doping (UKAD), which is composed of former police and custom officers, will also link up with other government agencies. The UK Border Agency and the Serious Organised Crime Agency will also help in its operation. The government has allocated £7.3 million budget for its first year operation which will start this December. Other task of this agency is to gather intelligence and at the same time test athletes for banned substances which include anabolic steroids.
Ashling O’Connor of TimesOnline UK reported that UKAD will also establish a confidential hotline to prevent drug cheats. The hotline will allow the public to provide information related to illegal importation and distribution of anabolic steroids in the country. It is also open to athletes, coaches and officials who want to offer information on the use of performance enhancing drugs which is a violation of the competition rules. Since the calls will be treated as confidential and anonymous, the agency is expecting that the strategy will be successful. However, the agency will not provide financial rewards to those people sharing the information.
According to the chief executive of UKAD, Andy Parkinson, it is not their intention to become the police force within sport. Their objective is to detect cheating athletes even before they got to the start line. Parkinson said that they want clean athletes to come and assured them that any information will not be misused by their agency. “All athletes want to compete in a clean environment but we can’t do it alone. We have seen a global change in direction that means we cannot just target the end user but have to stop substances getting to vulnerable athletes,” he said.
In the previous olympics, the IOC had caught several athletes violating the anti-doping rules. Most of these athletes were stripped off their medals and banned from their respective sports. In the last Beijing Olympics, even the Chinese national team has athletes who failed drug tests. Five of their swimmers caught using clenbuterol were banned.
To prevent similar incidence, some UK ministers are proposing a new rule for competing athletes. They suggested that the room of athletes should be searched as a condition of their participation in the games. They already asked the International Olympic Committee to include this in the contract of athletes. O’Connor wrote in his column that this may become controversial since olympic officials will be given the power to search the belongings of athletes and their coaches during the competition. Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe said that this proposal would act as a deterrent. “I don’t think it would be beyond the pale. Inspection would act as a deterrent,” he said. Sutcliffe also added that the integrity of sport must not be put at risk and fans need to be confident that the athletes they are watching are clean.
[...] 106-day, 28,000-mile relay ends Friday by handing down the Olympic Torch to the chairman of the 2012 London Olympics. The 62-year-old actor governor of California jogs through Vancouver’s Stanley Park where he [...]
[...] in his system. Leviakov suspension will end in Dec. 25, 2011 but her bid in the 2012 London Olympics is nil. The OIC does not allow athletes to compete in the Olympics if they were given a doping ban [...]
[...] athletes participating in the 2012 London Olympics are all focused on training and harnessing their skills to bring back gold for their countries. [...]
[...] athletes for performance enhancing drugs, the country’s chance of winning gold medals in the 2012 London Olympics is also waning. A few days ago, two of their women track athletes failed a doping test. They were [...]
[...] This is considered as one of the worst doping scandal in professional sports in India. Sports officials were enraged by the high number of athletes found using performance enhancing drugs because most of them are bound for the 2012 London Olympics. [...]
[...] However, if she can’t defend the positive steroid test, Wilson will receive a 2-year suspension from athletics. This would mean that she will also forfeit her chance to become part of the country’s delegates in the 2012 London Olympics. [...]