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Passport System to Be Implemented to Catch Drugs Cheats
The World Anti-doping Agency ( WADA) is planning to implement a series of new anti-drugs measures including a passport system to catch drugs cheats, it was announced in Tallinn Monday.
WADA head Dick Pound also revealed plans for a web-based information center and a training initiative for doping testers.
The Canadian lawyer told a news conference in Tallinn that the organisation would receive around two million euros (1.76 million US dollars) from the European Commission for the schemes, adding that WADA would sign an agreement with the Commission on August 21 to receive the funds.
"The first (initiative) is an e-learning project for a million euros," Pound said in Estonia's capital at the start of a two-day meeting of WADA's executive committee and foundation board.
"(It is) a web-based multilingual information reference and educational tool for athletes and sports physicians designed to help improve the preventative aspect of the doping fight.
"The second would be a 700,000 euro project to help us train teams of independent observers...It's a very valuable third-party validation of doping controls," he said.
Pound also said the money would help fund an athlete's passport project, a tool for athletes to access anti-doping information and for authorities to keep track of athletes' doping data.
"It will also (help) to provide a record of (athletes')personal data over a lengthy period of time, like blood levels, testosterone levels, a record of all times they have been tested and results of those tests," he said.
"But of course one of the main perils we have to study is the question of confidentiality."
WADA provides independent observers for events such as the Olympic games and world championships to watch how doping controls are applied.
At its Tallinn meeting, it will choose between Lausanne, the agency's temporary headquarters since it was set up in 1999, Montreal and Vienna as a permanent base.
It will also discuss its strategic plan until 2005, with the main goal to set up uniform international standards dealing with doping by the Athens Olympics in 2004.
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