23 Chinese swimmers were cleared to compete at the Tokyo Olympics after allegedly testing positive for doping, with world governing bodies ruling the tests as contaminated. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO accused WADA and Chinese authorities of mishandling positive tests, prompting WADA to seek legal counsel. The controversy raises concerns over fair application of global anti-doping rules.
In competitive sports, doping is the use of banned athletic performance-enhancing drugs by athletic competitors, as a way of cheating. As stated in the World Anti-Doping Code by WADA, doping is defined as the occurrence of one or more of the anti-doping rule violations set forth in Article 2.1 through Article 2.11 of the Code. The term doping is widely used by organizations that regulate sporting competitions. The use of drugs to enhance performance is considered unethical, and is prohibited by most international sports organizations, including the International Olympic Committee. Furthermore, athletes (or athletic programs) taking explicit measures to evade detection exacerbate the ethical violation with overt deception and cheating.The origins of doping in sports go back to the very creation of sport itself. From ancient usage of substances in chariot racing to more recent controversies in doping in baseball, doping in tennis, doping at the Olympic Games, and doping at the Tour de France, popular views among athletes have varied widely from country to country over the years. The general trend among authorities and sporting organizations over the past several decades has been to strictly regulate the use of drugs in sport. The reasons for the ban are mainly the health risks of performance-enhancing drugs, the equality of opportunity for athletes, and the exemplary effect of drug-free sport for the public. Anti-doping authorities state that using performance-enhancing drugs goes against the "spirit of sport".
The World Anti-Doping Agency suspended the accreditation of the only approved testing laboratory in Africa, located in Bloemfontein, South Africa, for up to six months due to flaws in steroid testing methods. Samples from Bloemfontein must now be sent to other WADA-accredited labs in Qatar, India, Portugal, Spain, or Turkey, posing logistical challenges for sample transportation and analysis. The suspension affects all testing at the lab and could impact anti-doping efforts for athletes in Africa leading up to the Paris Olympics in July.
Haruyuki Takahashi, a former Tokyo Olympics organizing committee member and executive board member of the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to charges of accepting bribes in exchange for awarding Olympic contracts. His defense argued that the money he received was legitimate consulting income and that the Tokyo organizing committee had no power to make marketing decisions. The next trial date has been set for February 22. Several people have already been convicted in bribery cases related to the Tokyo Olympics. French investigators are also scrutinizing the contracts for the upcoming Paris Olympics.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA; French: Agence mondiale antidopage, AMA) is a foundation initiated by the International Olympic Committee based in Canada to promote, coordinate, and monitor the fight against drugs in sports. The agency's key activities include scientific research, education, development of anti-doping capacities, and monitoring of the World Anti-Doping Code, whose provisions are enforced by the UNESCO International Convention Against Doping in Sport. The aims of the Council of Europe Anti-Doping Convention and the United States Anti-Doping Agency are also closely aligned with those of WADA.
Eric Lira, a Texas-based therapist, received a three-month prison sentence for violating the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act by supplying human growth hormone and other performance enhancers to Nigerian athletes. The athletes, Blessing Okagbare and Divine Oduduru, are serving multi-year bans. Regulators at the World Anti-Doping Agency opposed parts of the Act, which passed under then-President Donald Trump. Prosecutors have extended their investigation to include coaches connected to Lira before the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency praised the sentencing as a significant advancement in enforcing anti-doping regulations.
The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA, yoo-SAH-duh) is a non-profit, non-governmental 501(c)(3): 59 organization and the national anti-doping organization (NADO) for the United States. To protect clean competition and the integrity of sport and prevent doping in the United States with a performance-enhancing substance, the USADA provides education, leads scientific initiatives, conducts testing, and oversees the results management process. Headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USADA is a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Code, which harmonizes anti-doping practices around the world, and is widely considered the basis for the strongest and strictest anti-doping programs to prevent doping in sport.In 2001, USADA was recognized by the U.S. Congress as "the official anti-doping agency for Olympic, Pan American and Paralympic sport in the United States." While USADA is not a government entity, it is partly funded by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), with its remaining budget generated from contracts for anti-doping services with sport organizations, most notably the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC). The United States has also ratified the UNESCO International Convention against Doping in Sport, the first global international treaty against doping in sport, and largely relies on USADA to carry out this commitment.Travis Tygart has been the chief executive officer of USADA since September 2007.
United States Anti-Doping Agency v. Lance Armstrong, the Lance Armstrong doping case, was a major doping investigation that led to retired American road racing cyclist Lance Armstrong being stripped of his seven consecutive Tour de France titles, along with one Olympic medal, and his eventual admission to using performance-enhancing drugs. The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) portrayed Armstrong as the ringleader of what it called "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."
The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) has granted neutral status to 30 athletes and officials from Belarus, allowing them to participate in international competitions. The decision comes after Russian and Belarusian athletes were banned from most sports following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The FIG's list includes Ivan Litvinovich, the only Belarusian gold medalist at the Tokyo Olympics, and Alina Harnasko, who won bronze in rhythmic gymnastics. However, it remains unclear how these athletes will qualify for the Paris Olympics, as European governing bodies for gymnastics have maintained their ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes.
The 2020 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXXII Olympiad and officially branded as Tokyo 2020, were an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July 2021. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 7 September 2013.Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the event was postponed to 2021 on 24 March 2020 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the first such instance in the history of the Olympic Games (previous games had been cancelled but not rescheduled). However, the event retained the Tokyo 2020 branding for marketing purposes. It was largely held behind closed doors with no public spectators permitted due to the declaration of a state of emergency in the Greater Tokyo Area in response to the pandemic, the first and only Olympic Games to be held without official spectators. The Games were the most expensive ever, with total spending of over $20 billion.The Games were the fourth Olympic Games to be held in Japan, following the 1964 Summer Olympics (Tokyo), 1972 Winter Olympics (Sapporo), and 1998 Winter Olympics (Nagano). Tokyo became the first city in Asia to hold the Summer Olympic Games twice. The 2020 Games were the second of three consecutive Olympics to be held in East Asia, following the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea and preceding the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. Due to the one-year postponement, Tokyo 2020 was the first and only Olympic Games to have been held in an odd-numbered year and the first Summer Olympics since 1900 to be held in a non-leap year.New events were introduced in existing sports, including 3x3 basketball, freestyle BMX and mixed gender team events in a number of existing sports, as well as the return of madison cycling for men and an introduction of the same event for women. New IOC policies also allowed the host organizing committee to add new sports to the Olympic program for just one Games. The disciplines added by the Japanese Olympic Committee were baseball and softball, karate, sport climbing, surfing and skateboarding, the last four of which made their Olympic debuts, and the last three of which will remain on the Olympic program.The United States topped the medal table by both total golds (39) and total medals (113), with China finishing second by both respects (38 and 89). Host nation Japan finished third, setting a record for the most gold medals and total medals ever won by their delegation at an Olympic Games with 27 and 58. Great Britain finished fourth, with a total of 22 gold and 64 medals. The Russian delegation competing as the ROC finished fifth with 20 gold medals and third in the overall medal count, with 71 medals. Bermuda, the Philippines and Qatar won their first-ever Olympic gold medals. Burkina Faso, San Marino and Turkmenistan also won their first-ever Olympic medals.
AP News
Sports Illustrated
https://www.theguardian.com/profile/seaningle
Fox News
NY Post
Yahoo! News
By EDDIE PELLS
Wikipedia
PANORA
PANORA
Wikipedia
PANORA
Wikipedia
Wikipedia
PANORA
Wikipedia