November 2/12 10:11 am - Cycling Canada Announces Anti-doping Position

Posted by Editoress on 11/2/12
 

Cycling Canada held its Annual Meeting in Toronto from October 26th to 28th, 2012 and dealt with a number of important matters with the recent revelations of systematic doping in men’s professional road cycling being a strong focus. A summary of the discussions follow:

Doping in Sport

The Cycling Canada Board of Directors and the representatives of the Provincial and Territorial cycling associations meeting at the CC AGM in Toronto had a thorough review and discussion of recent doping revelations stemming from the USADA report on the systematic doping attributed to the USPS team in the 1999-2005 period.

Cycling Canada is unequivocal in its desire to see doping eradicated from the sport and will do all in its power, and encourage the UCI and WADA to do all in their power, to realize this objective.

Despite cycling being a leader in the fight against doping with substantial testing and the introduction of the biological passport, the problem, while it has been reduced in some measure, is still with us in a significant manner and must be acknowledged by all partners.

As a direct result of the admitted doping infraction of Canadian cyclist Michael Barry, the Board of Directors of Cycling Canada has determined that Mr. Barry’s result at the 2003 Canadian National Championships will be disqualified. This was the only event that Mr. Barry participated in, in Canada under the sanction of Cycling Canada during the period May 2003 to Summer 2006 which the USADA decision covered. His seventh place finish will be vacated and no other change to the order of finish will be awarded.

Cycling Canada fully supports further investigations into the systematic doping that prevailed during this dark period for cycling and notes that it is highly probable that teams other than USPS were guilty of similar practices during that time.

We encourage any athletes or support staff with information on doping to come forward to the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES 1-800-710-2237 or intelligence@cces.ca) to discuss what they know about the use of prohibited substances in sport.

Cycling Canada has received communication from a large number of members citing their concern with the recent doping revelations and the ability of the international bodies charged with testing to catch the cheaters. Obviously there is a lot of work to do, which begins with acknowledging the seriousness of this matter and heeding the call to urgent action. Cycling Canada feels all of the partners in anti-doping, particularly the UCI and WADA, are prepared to invest the necessary resources to fully investigate all related matters and work to restore the integrity of the sport.

To this end, the President of Cycling Canada will be communicating directly with the President of the UCI and the [UCI] Management Committee in relation to Canada’s position on the WADA code which is currently under revision. Cycling Canada supports the notion of an amnesty period, whereby riders and support personnel connected to the sport could come forward and discuss freely what they know about any doping activities. Further, we support the decision to form an independent commission to fully examine all aspects of the UCI management of the anti-doping file including the effectiveness of the biological passport program.

The members present at the Annual Meeting felt there would be a value in communicating the respective roles in anti-doping (WADA, IOC, UCI, CCES, CC) to members separate from this AGM summary. This will be done in the very near future.

Cycling Canada and its provincial/territorial affiliates will continue to promote the Race Clean culture and messaging across membership directly using all tools available including the UCI Academy online program True Champion or Cheat which can be accessed from the Cycling Canada website.

With respect to our National Team, Cycling Canada will integrate formal anti-doping discussions into camps and engage athlete leaders in working with current age group athletes. Last year we asked all National Team athletes and coaches to take the online ethical decision making course provided by the UCI Academy. We will continue this practice with all levels of our National Team and would encourage provincial/territorial associations to do so with their teams.

Finally, Cycling Canada will also consider policy guidance for itself, Provincial/Territorial Associations and Canadian Trade Teams on how it might move to prevent those with a history of involvement in doping from being involved in the administration or coaching of the sport.