Global Sports Doping Code Embraced

International sports bodies and national governments on Wednesday endorsed the first global anti-doping code.
Sports federations and more than 70 governments gave their support to a document establishing uniform drug-testing regulations and sanctions cutting across all sports and countries.

Delegates hailed the backing of the World Anti-Doping Code as a breakthrough in the fight against performance-enhancing drugs in sport.

However, it remains to be seen whether all parties will actually implement the code.

Endorsement of the code came after some federations and governments put aside their continuing differences over two-year drug sanctions and exemptions for U.S. professional leagues.

"There will be no differentiation between a team handball athlete and an NBA professional," said Terry Madden, chief executive officer of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

Sports federations are required to enact the code by the start of next year's Athens Olympics. Governments have been given until the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy, to sign up.

IOC president Jacques Rogge warned this week that sports and national Olympic committees refusing to comply should be excluded from the Olympics. He said countries which fail to go along should be barred from hosting the games.

Rogge greeted Wednesday's backing of the code with "guarded optimism."

"This is a means to an end," he said. "We can't bask in the glory of this conference. What I am interested in is how to diminish doping. This code is a major tool in that process."

Danish Sports Minister Brian Mikkelsen, who hosted the conference, said getting all the governments on board had been a major challenge.

"Negotiations have been uphill because of many nations' individual interests," he said. "These countries, however, have realized that there was an overall international interest in joining a united front against doping.

"I am a very happy man today."

The code establishes a single list of prohibited substances, ranging from steroids to stimulants to blood-boosting hormones. It also bans any form of genetic doping.

It calls for two-year suspensions for first serious drug violations and life bans for a second.

The code upholds the Olympics' "strict liability" policy, meaning athletes are responsible for any banned substance in their body regardless of how it got there.

As part of the plan, NBA players, for example, would face out-of-competition, random drug tests for the games starting July 1.

"It's not anything I really have to worry about, myself," Seattle SuperSonics star Ray Allen said. "The selection committee just has to consider the guys they pick on the team. They can pick anybody. You want to make sure guys are doing the right thing, especially during the season."

This is the first time NBA stars will face such comprehensive, pre-Olympic testing.

Under the system, which applies to athletes in all Olympic sports, drug testers can show up unannounced at a player's house at any time to ask for a sample.

Athletes failing drug tests at the Olympics or other competitions will automatically be disqualified and lose any medals.

However, the code allows for some flexibility in longer-term sanctions in case of "unintentional" doping violations and "exceptional circumstances."

If athletes can prove they were not at fault for a positive test, suspensions can be reduced or waived. This could include cases where athletes ingested a banned substance unwittingly in a cold tablet.

FIFA, soccer's world governing body, and the international cycling federation, UCI, had opposed the code's provision for fixed two-year bans.

But WADA agreed to FIFA's request to consider the two-year rule as guidance only. They decided to set up a working group with other sports federations to study the issue and how "exceptional circumstances" can be taken into account.

UCI said it backed the overall code.

Many governments and sports federations criticized the exemption of U.S. pro leagues, which do not fall under the jurisdiction of the government or international sports bodies.

The leagues are only "encouraged" to enact the code.

WADA said world support for the code would put pressure on the leagues to fall into line over time.