UK Anti-Doping appointed as Secretariat for International Olympic Committee Anti-doping Taskforce

United Kingdom Anti-Doping (UKAD) on 14 March 2016 was granted a role of organising a worldwide fight against performance-enhancing drugs in the run-up to 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

It was appointed as the secretariat for an International Olympic Committee anti-doping taskforce which will seek to standardise testing procedures.

The announcement came with Russia still banned by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and on course to be excluded from the Olympics following a report into mass doping violations.

UKAD was asked to oversee drug testing procedures in Russia for the time because its own anti-doping agency, RUSADA was found to be non-compliant with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code in early March 2016. The present role was granted beyond the UKAD’s Borders.

It is an opportunity for international federations and national anti-doping organisations to collaborate to ensure pre-Games testing programmes are targeted, meaningful and effective.

It's the first time that a global co-operation is a vital aspect of protecting clean sport and developing a level playing field for all athletes.

Background

There was a renewed focus on the use of drugs in sport followed the recent admission of Russian tennis star Maria Sharpova that she had taken the banned substance meldonium during 2016 Australian Open.

Meldonium is intended to be used in the treatment of Ischaemia (restriction in blood supply to tissues), or poor blood flow to improve endurance. It was added to the WADA list of banned substances on 1 January 2016.

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