Forbes.ua: News. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has been investigating possible manipulations with doping tests of athletes with ST …
Ukrainian sport is in a doping scandal. How Ukrainian athletes check how much it costs and what the possible sanctions of WADA are threatening
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has been investigating possible manipulations with doping tests of athletes from the National Anti-Doping Center of Ukraine (Nadtsa). Part of the suspicion was confirmed
Good news-WADA has not found evidence of the existence of a doping industry replacement system in the athletics federation of Ukraine.
There are three bad news. The first – according to WADA, one of the employees of the Athletics Federation of Ukraine could trade Erytropoietin forbidden drug.
The second-Nadza was violated by one of the key principles of doping testing: the athlete should not know when he will undergo a check. Instead, the Ukrainian center invited entire teams to doping tests, setting a specific date or outlining the test period. This practice was regular from 2012 to 2019, the WADA report said.
The third-during the official competitions in 2021, Nadtsu took six doping tests, marking them as taken in an unorior period. This is a violation, since athletes have passed less strict testing. In Nadza, these samples were counted athletes preparing for the Olympics in Tokyo.
After the scandal, the head of Nadza Ivan Kurlishchuk resigned. WADA could not get an explanation from him. “On September 14, we turned to him with the results, but he said that he did not know about tests in the Nadza building and manipulations with samples,” the WADA report said. – The head of the center promised to conduct an internal investigation and share the results with WADA. At the time of publication, this never happened. ”
The Minister of Youth and Sports of Ukraine Vadim Guttzight did not comment on the investigation in detail, saying on Facebook that the Ministry opposed the manipulation of doping in sports. The first deputy head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Youth and Sports, Jean Belenyuk told Forbes that so far “is not ready to comment” the situation.
How the doping testing system works in Ukraine
In 2017, a new law on anti -doping control in sports entered into force. He became a consequence of long consultations of the Ukrainian sports authorities with WADA, which had previously paid attention to serious shortcomings in the work of Nadza, says Forbes one of the former employees of the Center, who agreed to speak on conditions of anonymity.
“The usual picture for Nadza in the 2010s is three full-time doping officers and a few more people at Part-Time, they physically did not have time to test all the athletes,” the interlocutor says.- At the same time, for six months preceding the Olympic Games, about a thousand samples need to be processed. Hence the invitations to doping control in the Nadza itself.
After the 2017 reform, the situation improved: Nadza began to cooperate with doping officers on a freelance basis, the number of doping tests increased significantly. If in 2017 the center conducted 801 testing, then in 2020 more than twice as much-1855.
Inspections of athletes are held strictly, Forbes confirms the silver medalist in karate at the Olympics in Tokyo Angelica Terluga.
“I had a period when I passed three or four tests for two months,” she says. “This can happen at tournaments, they can come to your house.”
Under the special attention of doping officers are top sportsmen, Terluga notes. Each of them has its own account on the WADA website. “You never know who will take a doping test from you: Ukrainian or foreign doping officers,” says Terlyuga. – Everything happens under the strictest control – officers literally go to the toilet with you. A fine for passing a foreign doping control-€ 750.
In May 2021, the International Testing Agency accused the Ukrainian weightlifter Dmitry Chumak of trying to bribe foreign doping officers (the athlete denies everything, calling it “the most corrupt organization in the world”). Because of this, he missed the Olympics to Tokyo.
In connection with the problems with doping, five other Ukrainian athletes did not go to the games: Oleg Vernyaev, Julia Elistratova, Mikhail Gavrilyuk, Nazar Kovalenko and Natalia Pirozhenko-Black Sea. The last three did not have time to pass the required number of doping tests before the start of the Olympics. In order to somehow compensate for the lag, Nadza also took additional tests during tournaments, marking them as extravaled, the WADA report said.
What are the consequences of Ukrainian sport? A bad scenario is the recognition of Nadza to the non-relevant WADA rules, says Igor Gotsul, ex-president of the Athletics Federation.
This will greatly complicate the life of Ukrainian athletes, especially those who claim to participate in large international competitions. “For example, at least three samples per year only in Nadza need at least three samples,” the ex-employee Nadza says on the rights of anonymity. “But in fact, they can take 10+ tests.”
In Ukraine, doping procedures for athletes pays the state budget: the cost of one test exceeds € 300. It is theoretically possible to take similar tests abroad, Terluga says, but it is expensive and, most importantly, violates the principle of surprise of testing.
“It is impossible to imagine how it can be organized,” she says. “To travel to another country, for example, for fees, to take doping is absurd because the athlete will be ready for this.”
