Rogge Urges Sport To Get Behind Doping Code

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge has urged governments and sports bodies to speed up their compliance with the global rules against doping in sport.

Opening a three-day international summit on doping, Rogge said the fight against performance-enhancing drugs was being hampered by the slow pace of implementation of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s code.

‘WADA will only have a full credibility when the governments and the Olympic movement are compliant. Both partners of WADA, the governments and the sports movement, have to do a lot, and they have to do it fast.’

The code, which sets out doping rules and sanctions across all sports and countries, was approved by all Olympic sports federations before the 2004 Athens Games but many have still not fully come into line.

Rogge urged the sports bodies to achieve full compliance by 1st January, 2009.

In addition, only 70 governments have so far ratified the UNESCO anti-doping treaty out of nearly 200 nations that promised to do so at the previous doping summit in 2003. Countries which don’t comply can be barred from bidding for the Olympics.

Rogge said the IOC would continue to enforce a ‘zero-tolerance’ policy against doping, noting that the committee would conduct 4,500 drug tests at next year’s Beijing Olympics, 25% more than in Athens in 2004 and 90% higher than in Sydney in 2000.

The conference’s main agenda items are ratification of the latest version of the World Anti-Doping Code with the revised code allowing for four-year sanctions for a first doping offense in ‘aggravated’ cases, and for reduced penalties when athletes help catch other drug cheats or can prove the substance was not intended for enhancing performance.

WADA president Dick Pound, who has led the organisation since its creation in 1999, is stepping down at the end of the year and his successor will be also be named at the conference.

Former Australian finance minister John Fahey, who has little experience in the doping field, was left as the only candidate after former French sports minister and longtime favorite Jean-Francois Lamour withdrew last month. Fahey would require a majority among the 36 board members.