Doping control in the age of coronavirus

Sir Craig Reedie, former WADA President and IOC member, has warned that drug cheats taking advantage of the slowdown in doping control programmes “is taking a risk for a number of reasons. Firstly, there is now a much greater degree of intelligence within WADA and other anti-doping organisations about where the cheats come from, geographically where they are and other aspects of intelligence. Secondly, we are now better in laboratory examinations, we’ve got a comprehensive list of prohibited substances and there is some understanding that if the 2020 Games are going ahead [in 2021] it is very important for sports that people behave. Lastly, we will store samples for a long period and as soon as science gets better we will retest them so anyone who cheats may well be caught.”