The two day Symposium, which has focused on how to implement effective anti-doping programs in major events, wrapped up yesterday in China's capital. Anti-doping experts from 33 countries and regions were invited to share experience in various areas in anti-doping movement.
China's government has long adopted a zero tolerance attitude towards doping, and has vowed to hold a clean winter Olympics. To achieve this goal, 25 anti-doping facilities have been set up for the games.
Ling Lin is with the doping control department of the Beijing 2022 organizing committee.
"During the winter Olympic games, there are four kinds of anti-doping facilities. The first is the doping control command center. There will be three doping control command centers in total. The main center is in Beijing City. And in Yanqing and Zhangjiakou we will also have command centers. There will be 18 doping control stations in total. Among them, 16 are fixed ones. Three are in villages and 13 are in competition venues. And we will also have some temporary stations, and we also have one lab and at last we need some outreach booths."
The 2022 Winter Olympics will be held in Beijing and Zhangjiakou in Hebei Province. Yanqing district on the outskirt of Beijing will host some of the snow events.
Last year, nearly 20,000 samples were collected in China to test for doping, and well over 2,000 anti-doping education activities were held around the country, involving 460,000 people. The China Anti-Doping Agency says that this year it will launch a comprehensive anti-doping program for the upcoming Olympic events.
Benjamin Cohen with the International Testing Agency said the ITA will also lend its support to the anti-doping efforts in Tokyo and Beijing.
"The role of the ITA for Tokyo and Beijing basically has four areas — testing, science and intelligence, results management, and IT. So in the testing area, we basically oversee and monitor all the testing coordination. It starts with all the risk assessment: we need to know where the rises are during the Olympic Games and then design a test distribution plan. The science and medical department has a very specific role as well and as you may know, programs that start already before the real game are pre-game activities. This is pretty new, but we do not only test during major events. We want to make sure all athletes arriving in Tokyo or Beijing will have been subject to a robot testing program before reaching the games."
Chika Hirai with the organizing committee for Tokyo 2022 said more and more countries, including Japan, are drafting or amending their anti-doping legislation.
"Our Japan... Japanese government legislation for anti-doping activities enacted, so we finally are able to start working with related ministries to introduce intelligence programs such as the Japanese Customs. And within the official venue, the ITA and IPC lead the intelligence, and Tokyo 2020 will support this operation. And as been already mentioned, the paperless system for sample collection will be installed, and the notification will be done with paper, but some collection goes paperless."
China's highest judicial authority has thrown its support behind the country's wider anti-doping effort. The Supreme People's Court is drawing up judicial interpretations on the application of law in handling criminal cases related to the use, manufacturing, sale and smuggling of performance-enhancing substances.
For CRI, this is Su Yi.