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Doping-free sport in focus in Sochi

2015-04-29 10:37 SportAccord

SportAccord Doping-Free Sport Unit engages national federations in doping-free sport activities

28 APR 2015, Lausanne, Switzerland - SportAccord President Marius L. Vizer addressed the national federations in sport as the ‘engine of sport’ and staying true to the principle, the SportAccord Doping Free Sport Unit (DFSU) held a session dedicated to the role and responsibilities of National Federations (NFs) in successful doping-free sports programmes on the sidelines of the recently-concluded SportAccord Convention World Sport and Business Summit in Sochi. The session gathered a panel of anti-doping experts from all parts of the world from various organisations including representatives from NFs, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), national anti-doping organizations (NADOs), international federations (IFs) and public authorities.

Commenting on the session, director of the DFSU, Françoise Dagouret said, “This session helped to identify a few key elements in the anti-doping activities within NFs, the challenges they face and ways to solve them. For example, NFs are not themselves signatories to the World Anti-Doping Code, however they are obliged to adopt Code compliant policies directed by both their respective IFs and NADOs and conduct a number of anti-doping activities, which sometime involves significant costs. The session allowed to formulate basic communication and clarification principles within this “NF/NADO/IF triangle”.

Guidelines to the same effect will be released in the coming months and be made available to the entire anti-doping community.

The session was also a good opportunity for participants to take a look back at the Olympic and Paralympic Games precisely held in Sochi just over one year ago, with a presentation by the Adviser of the Sports Minister of the Russian Federation, on the “Sochi Police Network”, a comprehensive intelligence gathering programme based on airport luggage scanning, involving several federal agencies (police, customs, etc.).

The DFSU members actively took part in the WADA / Association of Recognized International Sports Federations (ARISF) anti-doping training and coaching session. Matteo Vallini, DFSU Operations Manager, explained the lessons learned and the challenges faced in the first months of implementation of the newly established Technical Document for Sport Specific Analysis (TDSSA) for IFs mandating testing activities to the DFSU. Françoise Dagouret, representing the World Karate Federation (WKF) on this occasion, presented the DFSU-managed WKF campaigns and plans to motivate athletes and coaches in anti-doping education.

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