The Covid-19 pandemic should not be " an opportunity to cheat for athletes, " warned World Anti-Doping Agency boss Witold Banka in an AFP interview, highlighting other " weapons " deterrence than testing.
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With the spread of the coronavirus and the resulting containment measures, Canada and Russia decided to suspend their tests, while the British anti-doping agency (UKAD) had to significantly reduce its own.
But " tests are not the only weapon we have, we have others, powerful, " said Wiltold Banka in a telephone interview from his home in Poland. " There is the athlete's biological passport, there is the long-term analysis of samples and intelligence, " said the man who was elected in November to succeed Briton Craig Reedie as head of WADA. . " The biological passport is a useful tool for establishing the profile (hematological and endocrinological) of athletes, " said the former Polish Minister of Sport.
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With this tool, top athletes " are obliged to tell us where they are even if we cannot go and test them, " he said. “ They should not imagine that this is an opportunity to cheat. If necessary, anti-doping agencies will deploy their weapons to catch them, "he said.
The former Polish Sports Minister, 35, nevertheless stressed that in the current context, the fight against doping was not the most important while the new coronavirus has killed more than 73,000 people worldwide. Regarding Covid-19, the former 400m specialist indicated that he was in regular contact with sports bodies, such as the International Olympic Committee and national anti-doping agencies.
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The pandemic has forced the AMA boss to put aside several ideas that he wishes to implement, in particular to increase funding for the fight against doping. “ I am studying the idea of creating a solidarity fund for regions like Africa, for example, where anti-doping systems are very limited (Editor's note: there is only one accredited anti-doping laboratory on the continent, in South Africa), "he said. The aim is to encourage sponsors and companies to "devote a minimum of their investments in sport" to the fight against doping. " We are still working on it, this is a very important question ," said the head of the AMA.
