Minister and Danish vice president resigns from WADA

Mikkelsen has been a strong proponent of anti-doping work, and at a recent meeting in WADA’s executive committee, he sharply criticised that only 13 of the 35 international sports federations live up to WADA’s Anti-Doping Code.

“Less than half of the international Olympic sports federations have rules and regulations for doping that live up to the WADA Anti-Doping Code. This is highly unacceptable,” said Brian Mikkelsen.

“I am especially concerned because only a few sports organisations perform out out-of-competition tests. Out-of-competition tests are essential for the anti-doping work. Doing tests during large competitions are more noteworthy, but testing between competitions in connection with training camps is a more powerful tool to reduce the misuse of e.g. EPO. Without out-of-competition tests, it is not possible to execute an effective anti-doping programme”, Wada’s vice president declared. 

Villains not pointed out 
Brian Mikkelsen does not want to mention the names of the organisations that do not live up to WADA standards but refer to the report “What is efficient doping control?” by Norwegian researchers Dag Vidar Hanstad and Sigmund Loland.

 ”It is likely that the international sports organisations in question believe that they are doing responsible anti-doping programmes by asking WADA to perform out-of-competition tests, however, this is far from adequate” Brian Mikkelsen told Play the Game.

 Brian Mikkelsen has now asked WADA to examine how it will be possible to ensure that all sports organisations live up to the World Anti-Doping Code and carry out the necessary testing in the future.

 One step is to set up regional anti-doping organisations – so-called RADO’s – to implement anti-doping work in countries which do not have their own national anti-doping organisation. So far WADA has plans to establish 10 RADO’s to cover 84 nations.