SWITZERLAND: GENERAL SPORTS - World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) stands firm on athletes' whereabouts rules
Record ID:
739369
SWITZERLAND: GENERAL SPORTS - World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) stands firm on athletes' whereabouts rules
- Title: SWITZERLAND: GENERAL SPORTS - World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) stands firm on athletes' whereabouts rules
- Date: 25th February 2009
- Summary: LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND (FEBRUARY 24, 2009) (REUTERS) PAN FROM THE GENEVA LAKE TO THE OLYMPIC MUSEUM, WHERE THE WORLD ANTI-DOPING AGENCY HELD ITS SYMPOSIUM SWISS AND OLYMPIC FLAGS BRIEFING ROOM (SOUNDBITE) (English) WADA PRESIDENT, JOHN FAHEY SAYING: "In my view you cannot have time when you're clean and time when you're not clean. In theory, that's what you're suggesting, if you say there's a holiday period, what will an athlete do in that period that can't be detected that might be seen as performance enhancing?" JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) WADA PRESIDENT, JOHN FAHEY SAYING: "We're eight weeks into this, I don't know of anybody at this stage, they may have, who have failed under the whereabouts testing and the whereabouts provisions of the revised code. Surely it's more appropriate for us to let this happen, monitor it, continue to see if we can develop understanding, and if there are shortfalls that come forward, that are not covered by the ability to give a reason that might mean that it isn't a failure after all, then we'll look at it again." JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) WADA DIRECTOR GENERAL DAVID HOWMAN, ASKED ABOUT COMPLAINTS BY SOME TENNIS PLAYERS THAT THE WHEREABOUTS RULES WOULD BE HARDER TO APPLY IN SPORTS WITH FREQUENT SCHEDULE CHANGES: "So they're making arrangements already to leave and go somewhere else. What we're saying, is during that process of thinking and co-operating in whatever data they're giving to other people, change your whereabouts. It's not rocket science, it's just an SMS which probably would take thirty-five, forty seconds to complete." JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) WADA PRESIDENT JOHN FAHEY, ASKED ABOUT THE DOPING CASE OF AMERICAN BASEBALL PLAYER ALEX RODRIGUEZ: "It's not for us to tell Major League Baseball how to run their sport. We would argue that the more they are compliant with the WADA code, the more effective they will be, but I would certainly not otherwise try and designate to them the approach that they should apply."
- Embargoed: 12th March 2009 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Switzerland
- Country: Switzerland
- Topics: Sports
- Reuters ID: LVA7X9EWXBU3LBXHXVHJ3IALRO4O
- Story Text: The World Anti-Doping Agency says that new anti-doping rules need time to "bed-in" and reject the possibility of giving athletes time off during the year.
Controversial anti-doping rules requiring athletes to state their location for an hour every day will need at least a year to "bed in", the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said on Tuesday (Februay 24) in Lausanne, also rejecting the possibility to set holidays for athletes during which they could ignore the "whereabouts rules".
"We're eight weeks into this, I don't know of anybody at this stage, they may have, who have failed under the whereabouts testing and the whereabouts provisions of the revised code. Surely it's more appropriate for us to let this happen, monitor it, continue to see if we can develop understanding, and if there are shortfalls that come forward, that are not covered by the ability to give a reason that might mean that it isn't a failure after all, then we'll look at it again," WADA president John Fahey said of the new rules that came into effect on Jan. 1.
Under the new requirements, athletes have to inform their national anti-doping authorities of where they will be at a chosen hour between 6 a.m.
and 11 p.m each day for a three-month period.
But the new regulations have been criticised by a number of athletes groups for overly intruding into their private lives.
In an address to the European Parliament last week, UEFA's president Michel Platini pledged for more relaxed out-competition drug testing rules, arguing that football players should be entitled to holidays and privacy, and not be forced to be available for drug testing 365 days a year.
"In my view you cannot have time when you're clean and time when you're not clean. In theory, that's what you're suggesting, if you say there's a holiday period, what will an athlete do in that period that can't be detected that might be seen as performance enhancing?" Fahey said.
Athletes are required to notify authorities of all changes of plans as soon as they can.
Athletes who miss three doping tests over an 18 month period due to not being where they said they would be face possible suspensions from their sport.
Several top tennis players, including Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Venus Williams, have argued that the rules are harder to stick to in sports where schedules are subject to sudden changes.
"So they're making arrangements already to leave and go somewhere else. What we're saying, is during that process of thinking and co-operating in whatever data they're giving to other people, change your whereabouts. It's not rocket science, it's just an SMS which probably would take thirty-five, forty seconds to complete," WADA's director general David Howman told journalists, dismissing the tennis players' arguments reported to him by the media.
Regarding the case of the American baseball player Alex Rodriguez, the New York Yankees third baseman who admitted to using illegal performance-enhancing steroids, Fahey declined to comment on Major League Baseball's leniency.
"It's not for us to tell Major League Baseball how to run their sport. We would argue that the more they are compliant with the WADA code, the more effective they will be, but I would certainly not otherwise try and designate to them the approach that they should apply," he said. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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