David Howman, WADA Director General
The Olympic and Paralympic Games are always a special opportunity for WADA to contribute to protecting the achievements of clean athletes.
The Vancouver Games are the sixth Games in which WADA has been asked to conduct its Athlete Outreach and Independent Observer Programs. This is a clear indication of the commitment of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to deliver rigorous anti-doping programs and significant support to athletes, but also a recognition of the success of these two WADA activities.
WADA’s Athlete Outreach Program has raised awareness about the importance of the Play True message among hundreds of thousands of athletes worldwide throughout the years. By adopting a fun and interactive approach for educating athletes and their support personnel about the dangers and consequences of doping, it shows the “other side” of the fight against doping in sport. The relaxed atmosphere and the computer-based Play True Quiz engage athletes to challenge their knowledge and to address questions to experts. It ensures that athletes are actively involved in keeping sport clean.
I have no doubt that thousands of athletes will learn more about their rights and responsibilities in anti-doping in the Vancouver and Whistler Athlete Villages thanks to the expertise of the international team recruited by WADA and the numerous resources available at the WADA Outreach Centers.
While outreach and awareness are a key to WADA’s daily work, I am particularly pleased that the Independent Observer Missions that WADA will conduct in Vancouver will, for the first time at an Olympic Games, take the form of an audit. This approach has proven successful at all events where the Agency has adopted it, including at the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games.
At past Olympic Games, Independent Observer Teams monitored the various phases of the doping control and results management processes and published a report following the event. This meant that event organizers only received recommendations several weeks following the event. The new audit-style format allows Independent Observers to meet with event organizers every day. A report is still published following the event, but the daily meetings with the organizers now ensure that suggestions for improvement made by the experts can be heard and addressed in real time.
This evolution is significant. Not only is the audit-style format useful to the organizers on a practical level, but it also further strengthens the protections provided to the clean athletes and contributes to enhance their confidence in the quality of the doping control and results management processes.
Athletes are the focal point of our global efforts. Our Athlete Outreach and Independent Observer Programs reflect WADA’s relentless commitment to protecting the right of clean athletes to compete in doping-free sport. In cooperation with all those involved in the fight against doping in sport, we want to ensure that champions who play by the rules are offered a platform that supports the pursuit of their dreams.
WADA, the IOC, the IPC, and the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) are entrusted with the responsibility to provide all clean athletes with the opportunity to compete at these Games within the same conditions — on a level playing field. WADA plays its role with resolve to ensure that athlete and public confidence in these Games is not marred by the actions of any athlete who may decide to cheat by doping.