The 15th annual symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was held in Lausanne and was attended by almost 900 delegates.
For the first time, a panel session of the WADA Athlete Committee was held, where a wide range of issues were discussed. In particular, an increase in the representation of athletes in the governing bodies of WADA, changes in the updated WADA Code, which will enter into force in 2021, as well as the upcoming launch of an improved version of the ADAMS anti-doping system known as Next Gen.
The WADA symposium was attended by a member of the ROC Athletes’ Commission Lada Zadonskaya, a famous speed skater in Soviet times, and Head of ROC’s sector for work with international sports organizations Lyubov Matrosova.
Furthermore, a delegation of RUSADA headed by General Director Yuri Ganus and his deputy Margarita Pakhnotskaya, as well as a representative of the Ministry of Sports Veronika Loginova attended the session in Lausanne.
– During the session of the WADA Athlete Committee, we discussed the organization’s new anti-doping Code standards in terms of collecting and analyzing doping tests, introducing new educational programs, and using therapeutic exceptions, – said Lada Zadonskaya in an interview to the ROC Information Service.
– The ratification of this important document is scheduled to coincide with the 5th World Conference on Doping in Sport, which will be held from 5 to 7 November in the Polish city of Katowice.
In addition, I made sure my colleagues paid special attention to the issues related to the observance of the rights of athletes during the procedure of doping control. The Chair of the WADA Athlete Committee, Olympic champion in ski racing Becky Scott proposed to bring the topic of access to athletes by doping officers for public discussion, and afterwards the official representative of WADA stressed that resolving this issue was exclusively within the competence of RUSADA.
The participants of the symposium also discussed preparations for the International Athletes’ Forum, which will be held from April 13 to April 15 in Lausanne. The Chair of the ROC Athletes’ Commission, Olympic champion in fencing, Sofya Velikaya will be representing Russia.
