."I would not want to say that any sport has been untouched by doping,''

WADA seeks special meeting
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -The World Anti-Doping Agency has invited athletes' groups for a meeting to defend the whereabouts rule for out-of-competition drug testing, a statute that has drawn increasing criticism and a court challenge.
Tennis star Rafael Nadal became the most outspoken critic of the system this week, insisting that forcing top athletes to be available one hour a day for testing amounted to intolerable harassment. In Belgium, 65 athletes even filed a court challenge.WADA director general David Howman said the new system is actually an improvement and should make life easier on athletes instead of turning them into victims of round-the-clock doping supervision. He said athletes should study the rules themselves. And if that is not sufficient, "give me a call, or come to one of the meetings. Find out something more before you open your mouth,'' Howman told the Associated Press on Thursday in a telephone interview from Montreal."There are things that need to be learned, we appreciate that,'' Howman added. "But make sure you learn all the information before you criticize it.''On Wednesday, Howman sent out invitations to several athletes' groups, representing thousands of elite competitors, to come together and together go over the new rules, which kicked in this year.Under the latest WADA code, athletes must specify one hour each day when and where they can be located for testing. Athletes must also tell anti-doping authorities where they will be over the next three months, but they can update this by e-mail or phone message at short notice if it changes."To have to send a message or be concerned all day long if there is a last-minute change seems to me to be totally excessive,'' Nadal said in a New York Times article.The Belgian athletes claim the rule is an invasion of privacy, building their court challenge on the fundamental right to privacy. Howman said that all through the rule-making process, WADA took special care not to make the measures excessive."We took legal advice to make sure that all the provisions were obeying the laws of proportionality,'' he said. Howman insisted, however, that efficient out-of-competition testing is a cornerstone of anti-doping controls. To catch cheats, short-notice tests are essential since many illegal substances can become untraceable within 24 hours. To perform such tests, WADA needs to know at all times where and when athletes can be traced.Under the rules, three missed tests or three warnings for failing to file whereabouts information within an 18-month period constitute a doping violation and can lead to athletes being banned. Some athletes complain they cannot go to the movies as they please or unexpectedly go out for breakfast without proper warning. Howman insists everything is possible with a certain amount of planning."The system is far more flexible than they lead to believe,'' Howman said. If they do not take time or effort to apply anti-doping rules "they are not being responsible either to their sport or to the other players they are competing with.''The fear is that if the challenge of the Belgian athletes is successful, it could undermine the work of WADA as a precedent.The Belgians and Nadal complained that sports with a perceived minimal history of doping were targeted as much as those where doping among the top stars has proved rife."I would not want to say that any sport has been untouched by doping,'' Howman said.

IOC and EU sports leaders meet to begin new era of accord

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Olympic leaders met with European Union officials Monday to develop closer relations between the sports and political worlds.
Sports federations want control to run their own affairs protected from the EU's free market competition laws, while also seeking help from the political bloc's 27-member countries to fight doping, corruption and illegal betting. The meeting, which lasted nearly two hours at the International Olympic Committee headquarters - was led by IOC president Jacques Rogge and EU sports commissioner Jan Figel.
"We had a very good dialogue," Rogge told The Associated Press. "I have great gratitude for the commissioner for the way he is opening up the door to our advice and our proposals." Figel said the agenda of sport was more central to political debate in Europe than ever before. "What we need is a theme-by-theme approach to specific topics like the fight against doping, free movement of persons in the area of sport, and financing of sport, especially at the grass roots," he said. Rogge said while sports federations must be left to make their own rules and regulate the field of play, lawmakers' support was needed in other areas."Cracking down on drug networks, doping networks, can only be done with governments where the commission in Brussels can have a co-ordinating role," he said. "It is clear that illegal betting cannot be fought alone by the sports movement."We need the support of the member states. We also need the support of the commission to create this exchange of information and harmony."The IOC will build on this new accord by opening an office in Brussels next month to lobby the EU Commission at its headquarters.
"It speaks by itself about the growing intensity of dialogue between us," Figel said.
The two sides have searched for common ground since the EU published a July 2007 paper outlining ideas on how pro sports could operate within anti-monopoly and labour laws. The EU's Lisbon Treaty of Oct. 2007 then supported legal exemptions for sport by recognizing its "specific nature" - namely, its financial structure distributing money from rich clubs down to poorer ones and its social role in educating young people. Monday's meeting was called after a summit of sports leaders and EU sport ministers in Biarritz, France, last November led to European heads of state requesting a stronger dialogue with the IOC. Among those attending in Lausanne were IOC executive board members Denis Oswald and Rene Fasel and FIFA president Sepp Blatter, an IOC member in his role as head of football's world governing body.

Athletes to face new doping rules

Grey-Thompson's measures will send a strong signal to athletes
Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson's anti-doping review for UK Athletics has called for tough new measures to tackle drugs. They include a period of international exclusion after doping bans, financial penalties for missed drugs tests, and a clear rehabilitation programme. The review, conducted over six months, came up with 22 recommendations which have been adopted by the UKA board. UKA chief executive Niels de Vos said they would deliver "absolute clarity" for athletes on the misuse of drugs.
"The deterrent just got much stronger," he warned.
"These recommendations mean that any athlete stupid enough to [break the rules] will not only destroy their career as an athlete, but also any future one in the sport as an administrator or coach."
Grey-Thompson was joined on the review panel by former athletes Ed Moses and Colin Jackson, sports PR guru Mike Lee and UK Sport's anti-drugs chief John Scott.´

"It's important to note the extent to which British athletes are demonstrating their commitment to our rigorous anti-doping programme"
UKA boss Niels de Vos

In addition to a general request for submissions from the public, over 400 stakeholders were contacted, including athletes, coaches, other national governing bodies, politicians and journalists. Grey-Thompson said: "What was very clear was that internationally we are all operating at very different standards, and UKA needs to continue to lobby to achieve harmonisation. "There was also widespread support, especially from current athletes, for a four-year ban, and this is something we need to collectively push for." De Vos said: "Since I commissioned the review, the anti-doping landscape has changed drastically, supporting our initial observations.
"Euromeets [promoters] will no longer allow athletes with two-year bans to compete in their events, the major shoe companies will not endorse these athletes, and recently big agents have taken a decision not to represent athletes who have a serious doping conviction. "Additionally, I think it's important to note the extent to which British athletes are demonstrating their commitment to our rigorous anti-doping programme. "There are now no GB athletes on two missed tests and 10 athletes on one missed test. "Our ambition now is to get that down to zero, but we have come a long way over the last 12 months."

Skidskytteglädje och Stjärtvick!

Ögonblicket hon ställer sig där slutar vi andas. Fokuseringen total och den för mig okontrollerade nervöshet gör sig påmind då jag själv känner att nu, nu jäklar gäller det. - Kom igen, Helena! Bom! Aha!!! Men vad gör det. Ledarinnan Neuner fick 5! Likt en Piltscher kopia rusar jag efter henne. Heja, heja - öka!! Kom igen! Barn och man lika entusiastiska och eftermiddagskaffet blir en halvljum belöning när hon äntligen går imål. 2:a, men en segrare! Vinterstudion är en succeé och våra sidåkande förebilder ger oss spänning, dramatik och glädje som väl aldrig skådats. Iallafall inte på länge. Vi naglar oss fast, 2,3,8 timmar framför tv:n och inspireras till att damma av skidor och ladda. Min dotter är 5. Ifjol upptäckte hon Skidskytte. Som Lotta på Bråkmakargatan förklarade hon att skate-åkning är likt slalom. Man svänger lite höger, lite vänster och vickar lite på stjärten så är det klart. Det enda hon var en smula bekymmrad över var bössan. Det är ju, trots allt, del av utrustningen. Vår granne heter Börje. En underbart kreativ handyman som fixar det mesta så när min dotter påpekade detta dilemma fanns det en snabb lösning. Av en snyggt hyvlad planka skapades en bössa och av ett lämpligt avsågat platsrör det oh så viktiga siktet. Remmar nitades fast och paketet var komplett. En fröjd för ögat var denna varelses kämparanda då hon fram och åter, samt med en runda av och till, formligen flög fram. Vickde så snyggt på stjärt, slängde sig i diverse snödrivor, laddade och sköt. Pam, pam, pam, pam, pam. Full house. På med bössa och full fart igen. Hon strålade. Vi älskar att inspireras och våra barn är tydliga exempel på att förebilder skapar betydelse och en närvaro som är enorm. "Dom kan" och "jag vill" mentaliteten skapas. Vi måste värna om den styrka vi förebilder besitter. Jag är så stolt över att kalla er alla; Mina ambassadörer.

Ren Idrott//Mia

Kalla Pris(er) och Glädjetårar.

Vid den 10:e Svenska Idrottsgalan i Globen fanns Ren Idrott på plats och njöt verkligen av en fartfylld och trevlig kväll. På plats för att hyllas, våra ambassdörer och medarbetare. Vad sägs om Årets prestation", Charlotte Kallas "Tour de Ski"-seger samt en 6:e plats på Jerringomröstningen för Stefan Holm. Och han fick - som Kajsa i fjol - en rejäl stående ovation från Globensalongen när han kom in på scenen för att agera prisutdelare. Även Carolina Klüft hade fått uppdrag som prisutdelare, i hennes fall för det ytterst exklusiva "Idrottsakademins Hederspris". Carolina svarade för ett engagerat och personligt presentationstal för pristagaren Prof. Arne Ljungqvist. I fokus stod förstås hans drygt trettio år som outtröttlig dopingbekämpare på internationell och nationell nivå där vi på Ren Idrott är oerhört stolta och glada för det arbete och stöd han ger till stiftelsen.

The Role of Drugs

MetroNews Talkline
Morgantown, Monongalia County // Professor John Hoberman: The Use of Drugs

"This is, I think, one of the momentous issues that the human race is going to be facing in the 21st Century." That's how Doctor John Hoberman, Chair of the Department of Germanic Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, describes the question of what role drugs will play in our society.
It's a question, he says, for everyone from scientists to athletes.
"What I claim is that you cannot really understand an elite athlete's use of drugs and the regulation of an elite athlete's use of performance enhancing drugs unless....you situate it within a much larger context of drug use," Hoberman said on Wednesday's MetroNews Talkline.
He says there are any number of ways 'performance enhancing' could be defined and, he says, that could include any number of drugs with drugs being used these days to treat everything from anxiety to erectile dysfunction. It could be argued treating those conditions and any number of other conditions will enhance performance.
Hoberman spoke Wednesday at West Virginia University's Coliseum as part of a lecture series from the International Center for Performance Excellence in WVU's College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences.
He talked about "The Myth of Olympic Purity: Political Games from Berlin to Beijing." Hoberman has done extensive research on the ways sports, politics, science, public opinion, the Olympics and doping in sports intersect.

Hoberman has written a number of books including "Testosterone Dreams: Rejuvenation, Aphrodisia, Doping" and "The Olympic Crisis: Sport, Politics and the Moral Order."

Couch-Potato Drugs Are WADA’s First Banned for Gene-Doping Ties!

Jan. 14 -- Two drugs that activate genetic switches, fooling the body into believing it has exercised, are the first to be added to the Olympic sports prohibited list for their ties to gene doping. The drugs, whose effects were first disclosed in a report published online by the journal Cell on July 31, were added to the nine-page list issued by the World Anti-Doping Agency under the “Gene Doping” classification as of Jan. 1. It’s a category that is likely to grow over the next five to 10 years, said Dr. Gary Wadler, who heads WADA’s Prohibited List Committee, as gene therapy becomes “part of the matrix of what physicians have to treat patients.”
“There’s gene-therapy stuff going on in research labs everywhere in the world,” Wadler said in an interview at his Manhasset, New York, office. “I think they’re going to cause breakthroughs, and those breakthroughs, if they have any application to enhance athletic performance, then you’ll ultimately see it banned.”
One of the drugs is a synthetic protein called Aicar that, when given to mice, improved endurance by 44 percent after four weeks, even without exercise. The other is an experimental medicine made by GlaxoSmithKline Plc, GW1516, which remodeled the mice’s skeletal muscle and raised their endurance levels by 75 percent when the animals also ran on a treadmill.

WADA’s 2009 prohibited list includes nearly 70 anabolic steroids; about 60 stimulants; hormones; diuretics and other masking agents; blood-doping methods; and several narcotics. The Montreal-based agency oversees anti-drug programs for Olympic-level sports.

Läs Tips!
"Increased submaximal insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in mouse skeletal muscle after treadmill exercise"

Taku Hamada, Edward B. Arias, and Gregory D. Cartee
Muscle Biology Laboratory, Division of Kinesiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan //Submitted 7 April 2006 ; accepted in final form 21 June 2006

http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/101/5/1368