For the first time in its history the IAAF conveyed a joint meeting between representatives of the Athletes’, Coaches and Medical and Anti-doping Commissions.
A very busy weekend of individual commission meetings culminated in a lively, vivid discussion on Sunday 13 February attended by some 60 people including past and active athletes, coaches, medical experts, anti-doping officials and IAAF staff.
IAAF President Lamine Diack chaired the meeting accompanied by General Secretary Istvan Gyulai and the respective chairmen of the Athletes’, Coaches and Medical and Anti-doping Commissions, namely Alberto Juantorena (CUB), Igor Ter-Ovanesian (RUS) and Juan Manuel Alonso (ESP).
“I am very happy to see you all, members of the Athletics Family, respond positively to the IAAF call to sit together and discuss what more we can do in the fight against doping,” said President Diack. “We are the leading Federation in this field and it is our duty to keep our sport clean.”
The bottom line of the joint meeting was that all parties were willing to be pro-active in the fight against doping although each one inevitably has a different perspective on the topic. In particular, the representatives of the Athletes’ Commission, announced their total commitment to Clean Sport, and supported the strict policy of USATF regarding suspensions for life for a first steroid offence. However, the athletes also requested greater transparency and guidance from the IAAF regarding anti-doping rules and procedures.
The input from athletes, coaches and doctors was extremely useful and opened a constructive debate during which the anti-doping specialists responded to the athletes’ and coaches’ questions related to Out of Competition Testing procedures.
Another important issue raised related to the use of nutrition and food supplements with the medical experts emphasising that the optimal health of professional sportsman depended on balanced nutrition. As a result, representatives of the three Commissions will be appointed to work in two new Task Forces to develop Educational programmes on anti-doping and on Nutrition/Food Supplements.
It was agreed that an educational programme to “demystify” anti-doping procedures was a number one priority, not only to help athletes but also as a way of being more transparent with the Media and fans.
The Medical and Anti-doping Commission confirmed that efforts were made in establishing an Educational programme for youngsters and its first steps will be the production of a user-friendly guidelines booklet for athletes and, in collaboration with WADA, an information stand regarding anti-doping will be set up in the Athletes’ village at the next IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Helsinki.
The three IAAF Commissions were also given 207 proposals for changes to IAAF Technical Rules from IAAF Member Federations which will be presented to Congress in Helsinki. As a result of this, the opinions of these important stake holders will be known, and taken into account by IAAF Council, which meets in Doha, Qatar, on 9-11 April 2005 to assess the merits of the various rule change proposals.