Home > News > Doping Control >

Teaching riders is top goal for anti-doping panel

2009-03-10 09:35 WADA

09 March 2009 - A panel of anti-doping experts is pushing for increased efforts to teach equestrian riders about doping rules in an attempt to solve the sport's problems with horses failing drug tests at the Olympics.

A commission created by the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) will recommend better education of competitors and their entourages as part of a series of proposals to repair the sport's damaged reputation after six positive tests at the Beijing games.

"Our credibility is at stake," FEI secretary-general Alex McLin told the Associated Press.

"It's about the welfare of horses and it's about the perception of the sport."

The 18-member panel met for the first time last Friday under the leadership of Arne Ljungqvist, the chairman of the International Olympic Committee medical commission and a vice president of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

"I would say we had a flying start," Ljungqvist said in a telephone interview.

"It is my job to help the FEI to get their particular problems understood by the IOC and the Olympic movement."

The riders whose horses tested positive in Beijing were disqualified from the games, stripped of their results and suspended by the FEI.

Two riders - Tony Andre Hansen of Norway and Germany's Christian Ahlmann - are challenging the rulings at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Hansen is trying to retain Norway's bronze medal in team jumping. However, Ljungqvist said cheating was not the problem as some medications can be used legally to treat injured horses in training yet are banned in competition.

"Obviously there was a lack of communication and education with respect to those involved in taking care of the horses," he said.

One of the first major events scheduled to operate under the finalised doping and medication guidelines is the World Equestrian Games being held in late 2010 in Lexington, Kentucky.

(Credit: AOC)

Related Story