Notification
Athletes should be aware that the new World Anti Doping Code recommends that it is YOUR responsibility to notify the appropriate governing body of your whereabouts at all times. This means completing a TA notification of whereabouts form and forwarding the form to TA regularly.
Note the following summary of key points from the code (Source ASDA web site http://www.asda.org.au) with particular reference to Article 2.
Issues addressed under the Code
- Harmonisation of anti-doping rules across sport to create a level playing field world-wide
- A single list of prohibited substances
- Recognition of therapeutic use of banned substances
- Two year suspension for a first serious violation, with the flexibility to take into account exceptional circumstances
- Responsibility of athletes to provide whereabouts information
Australian Olympic Committee anti-doping by-law
Under this recently enacted by-law sports are required to:
- recognise the Court of Arbitration in Sport (CAS) as the sole body to hear anti-doping cases by 1 July 2003
- ensure athletes competing in professional leagues and seeking Olympic selection are subject to testing programs by 13 Aug 2003
- adopt anti-doping rules consistent with the Code by 9 July 2004.
Key points
Article 2 - Anti-Doping Rule Violations
- Upholds 'strict liability' policy, whereby
athletes are responsible for any banned substance in their body
regardless of how it got there.
- Includes 'evasions', 'admissions'
(under 'attempted use') and breach of applicable requirements in
relation to 'athlete whereabouts'.
Article 3 - Proof of Doping
- Places burden of proof on athletes to contest positive drug findings.
Article 4 - The Prohibited List / Therapeutic Use
- Creation of a single list of banned substances to be revised and updated on a regular basis.
- Substances to be placed on the banned
list if they meet any two of three criteria: they enhance performance,
they pose health risks or they violate the 'spirit of sport'.
- Recognition of legitimate therapeutic
use in line with the international standard for the process of granting
therapeutic use exemptions. Each IF shall ensure that a process is in
place for international level athletes and each NF shall ensure that a
process is in place for all non-international level athletes within its
jurisdiction.
Article 5 - Testing
- International Federations and National
Federations to establish registered testing pools for national and
international level athletes to enable the planning and coordination of
no advance notice testing as the priority for testing.
Article 6 - Analysis
- Doping control samples to be analysed only at WADA accredited or approved laboratories.
Article 8 - Right to a Fair Hearing
- Athletes are assured the right to a fair hearing.
Article 9 - Automatic Disqualification of Individual Results
- Anti-doping rule violation during
competition leads to automatic disqualification of the results of that
competition, including loss of any medals.
Article 10 - Sanctions on Individuals
- Anti-doping violation during an event leads
to automatic disqualification of all the athlete's individual results
obtained during that event.
- Two-year suspension for the first
serious violation, with flexibility to take into account "exceptional
circumstances". Life bans for second infractions. Suspensions can be
waived/reduced if athletes can prove they were not at fault/significant
fault for positive finding.
- Reduced sanction for specified substances.
- Minimum four year bans for trafficking
in banned drugs. Significant penalties apply to athlete support
personnel, including a life ban.
Article 14.3/14.5 - Athlete Whereabouts / WADA Clearing House
- Athletes identified in an out-of-competition testing pool to provide accurate, current location information.
- WADA to act as a clearing house for testing data and results.
National/international level athletes
- Many provisions under the Code attempt to
distinguish between national and international level athletes, and the
corresponding responsibilities of National anti-doping bodies and
international federations eg. registered testing pools, TUE, appeals
etc.
Article 23 - Acceptance and Implementation Deadlines for Sport