VANOC's Commitment to Doping-Free Sport
By VANOC
Every Olympic and Paralympic Games Organizing Committee faces the challenge of providing an extraordinary Games experience that includes a doping-free sport environment. The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) is taking the unique approach of emphasizing both anti-doping education and detection/deterrence.
VANOC has embraced the challenge with vision, passion and expertise by putting into place a state-of-the-art anti-doping program since Vancouver was selected as the Host City of the 2010 Winter Games six years ago.
Nearly 2,500 blood and urine samples — 2,000 for the Olympic Games and 425 for the Paralympic Games — will be collected. This is a significant increase in the number of samples from previous Games and the highest number of doping control tests in the history of the Olympic Winter Games. “It will send a very strong message to athletes that doping is unacceptable,” says Jeremy Luke, VANOC’s Director of Anti-Doping.
VANOC is also using the Games as a means to facilitate new relationships with law enforcement agencies to increase the effectiveness of anti-doping initiatives in Canada.
VANOC’s Anti-Doping Team wants to ensure that athletes feel comfortable during the doping control process. For this reason, 700 volunteers have been trained in specific anti-doping procedures to act as doping control officers, blood collection officers and chaperones during the Games.
In its mission to offer doping-free sport and a level playing field for athletes, VANOC’s Anti-Doping Program also focuses on prevention and education. Educational material has been developed in order to explain the International Olympic Committee’s and the International Paralympic Committee’s anti-doping rules to athletes and their support personnel. VANOC is also the first Organizing Committee to implement an Athlete Outreach Program in partnership with WADA.
The Athlete Outreach Program was developed in collaboration with numerous International Sport Federations using WADA’s Athlete Outreach Model. While WADA will run its Athlete Outreach Program in the Olympic and Paralympic Villages during the 2010 Winter Games, the Program was introduced to athletes during sport events organized by VANOC in 2008 and 2009.
VANOC’s goal was to reach, inform and educate athletes before they arrive at the Games. “We feel it is extremely important to work with them and ensure they have all the information they need in advance of the Games to make the right decisions when it comes to anti-doping,” says Luke.
Retired Canadian cross-country skier, three-time Olympian, and member of WADA’s Foundation Board, WADA’s Athlete Committee and the VANOC Board of Directors, Beckie Scott, believes education and outreach make a huge difference for athletes. “It is a critically important piece of the anti-doping landscape. Athletes and their support personnel absolutely must have access to updated and relevant information so that they can be educated on the dangers and consequences of doping as well as the importance of competing ethically,” she says.
Scott hopes that VANOC’s commitment and initiative paves the way for future Olympic and Paralympic Organizing Committees to put greater effort into reducing doping and unethical sport. “VANOC’s commitment is admirable and demonstrates a genuine interest in clean, fair Olympic and Paralympic sport,” she says.
Claudia Larouche
Matthew Fedoruk, VANOC’s Manager, Anti-Doping Operations, during one of VANOC’s Athlete Outreach Missions.
“We feel it is extremely important to work with athletes and ensure they have all the information they need in advance of the Games."