FISU readies Taipei 2017 anti-doping measures for action

The FISU Medical Committee, with WADA’s and the Taipei Universiade Organising Committee’s assistance, is ready for the most ambitious anti-doping and athlete health check programme in event history

TAIPEI CITY– With only three days to go before the Taipei 2017 Summer Universiade Athletes’ Village opens, anti-doping preparations are already in place to ensure testing in and out of competition throughout the 12- day event.

Chairman of the FISU Medical Committee Dusan Hamar will be responsible for FISU’s overseeing of doping controls, including the out of competition testing, which will begin when the Village officially starts to welcome athletes on 12 August.

FISU, WADA and the Gwangju 2015 Organising Committee collaborated to produce the anti-doping e-textbook. 

“There will be about 750 samples collected, out of which around 10 percent will occur before competition,” Hamar said. “The exact number depends on additional requests for testing in the case of national records, namely in swimming or track and field. FISU Medical Committee members will be supervising collections, and doping control stations will be arranged at every venue with an additional one in the Athletes’ Village.”

Working alongside the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), FISU has made it a top priority to educate athletes, coaches and institutions on the role they can play.

The two organisations collaborated on an anti-doping e-textbook with the Gwangju Summer Universiade Organising Committee in 2015, to support university students from all over the world in the fight against doping in sport. The e-textbook is freely available to download here: //antidopinglearninghub.org/en

 From the anti-doping coursework that FISU helped create to coordinate the global campaign against doping in sport.

A WADA-accredited lab in Tokyo will be used throughout the Universiade for sample analysis, and Hamar confirmed that a range of sports will be tested, as well as specific testing for any suspicious activity or results.

“The test distribution plan has been prepared by the Organising Committee’s Doping Control Department under the guidance of the FISU Medical Committee. It respects WADA’s technical document for sport specific analyses, which not only test on ranking but also has some flexibility to test any suspicious intelligence information gained during the Games.”

As well as the competition testing, Hamar also praised FISU’s focus on educating participants about the role of anti-doping in sport as well as their “Check-Up Your Heart” initiative, the largest cardiac evaluation of elite athletes ever.

 Check-Up Your Heart is the largest cardiovascular screening of elite university athletes in the world

“Education and maintaining awareness of the doping problem is an important part of the anti-doping fight. There will be an educational booth in the Athletes’ Village, where participants will have the opportunity to extend their knowledge on doping,” said Hamar. “The Check-Up Your Heart team will work hard to reach a target of screening 2,000 Universiade athletes. The two main goals are to obtain more precise information on the incidence of cardiac abnormalities among elite athletes, and to offer the opportunity of a complex heart screening to the athletes who do not have access to such sophisticated technology in their home countries.”

 Check-Up Your Heart Program will be supervised by the former chair of the FISU Medical Committee, Dr. Lawrence D. Rink

For more on information on FISU’s International Medical Committee: //krikyalive.com/committees/international-medical-committee

The Taipei 2017 Summer Universiade begins on 19 August and will run until 30 August. Keep checking in here and on our Facebook and Twitter handles for live updates in the lead-up and during the Summer Universiade.