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ASADA Update on Australian Weightlifting Investigation

Speech presented by Richard Ings, CEO of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) at Media Conference - Hyatt Hotel, Canberra at 2pm on Thursday 21st December - 21 December 2006

Welcome to this update on ASADA’s wide-ranging investigation into Australian weightlifting by lead investigator Mr. Richard Young. I thank you for coming on short notice.

ASADA received a copy of Mr. Young’s report on Monday 11 December. Since that time it has been reviewed by the ASADA Board and ASADA legal team and today is the first opportunity to share with you the Phase One findings of the report.

As many of you know on 14 March 2006 the Australian Government launched the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) with a clear goal of making the Australian Government’s tough on drugs message even tougher.

The Australian Government has provided ASADA with significant new powers and in particular the power to conduct comprehensive investigations to answer allegations of doping in Australian sport.

Australian weightlifting is a sport that has a dubious track record when it comes to the issue of Pure Performance. In the last 4 years, 10 weightlifters have been sanctioned for doping offences which is more than any other sport within ASADA’s government funded testing program.

In March of this year, following allegations of the use of performing enhancing substances and subsequent allegations of trafficking within weightlifting in Australia, ASADA announced a wide-ranging investigation of these allegations.

To date three weightlifters, Coran Hocking, Jenna Myers and Camilla Fogagnolo, have received two-year sanctions and a fourth is still awaiting a hearing before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). All these maters relate to the use of the powerful stimulant BZP. In addition, a fifth weightlifter was the subject of allegations from within the sport for trafficking in BZP.

These issues prompted the opening of the investigation under the leadership of the experienced and internationally respected anti-doping expert Mr Richard Young.

Mr. Young was appointed to lead a team of ASADA investigators to examine those allegations and conduct an in-depth investigation of any other matters of doping within the sport of weightlifting.

The investigation is the most comprehensive conducted into the allegations of doping within an Australian sport. More than 75 interviews have been conducted, and documentary evidence has been obtained.

The investigation has been conducted with the cooperation of a number of Government agencies including the Australian Customs Service, the Therapeutic Goods Administration and the state police forces of South Australia and Victoria.

To date, the time taken in conducting the investigation is a demonstration of the thoroughness and professionalism of the undertaking, the need to work closely with other Government agencies, and the seriousness of the matters.

ASADA operates under strict laws of confidentiality and in compliance with the requirements of the World Anti-Doping Agency Code (WADA).

Under the ASADA legislation, ASADA is not permitted to publicly disclose information that would directly or indirectly identify any individual who may be the subject of an investigation, or the subject of a doping finding until those matters are concluded by either the acceptance of a sanction or until a sporting tribunal makes a finding of a sanction.

This process is identical to what applies in the case of managing a positive test.

ASADA will comply with our governing laws and in so doing respect the fair and due process that must be applied.

The information I’m providing today will answer many questions about the progress of the investigation into weightlifting, but equally leave unanswered questions, and therefore I ask for your understanding and respect for the fair and due process that must be applied in all cases.

Having said that, what I am announcing today is the findings of the first phase of the Young report. This investigation firstly has uncovered evidence of organised distribution and supply channels for a range of prohibited substances including steroids, human growth hormone (hGH), and BZP.

As a result, several persons of interest are assisting ASADA with its ongoing investigation and the possible resulting anti-doping rule violations.

As these matters are subject to confidentiality requirements of Section 71 of the ASADA Act, I unable to provide any more specific detail at this time.

As a direct result of the report, ASADA has now taken an eight point plan to protect the integrity of the sport going forward to the Australian Weightlifting Federation (AWF) Board.

This action plan was presented to, and unanimously supported by, the AWF Board at a teleconference held yesterday.

The action list required by ASADA is as follows:

AWF will:

• assist ASADA in compiling urine and blood profiles for Australian weightlifters on the ASADA Registered Testing Pool as determined by ASADA;
• require that Australian weightlifters on the ASADA Registered Testing Pool provide accurate and timely whereabouts information as determined by ASADA;
• require that Australian weightlifters on the ASADA Registered Testing Pool seek prior approval from ASADA for international training locations;
• develop and observe selection criteria for the appointment of athlete support personnel in consultation with ASADA, whereby the athlete support personnel commit to pure performance in sport, particularly taking into account any anti-doping rule violations;
• compile a register of athlete support personnel to meet ASADA requirements and provide that information to ASADA on request;
• require all Australian weightlifters on the ASADA Registered Testing Pool, and registered athlete support personnel to attend mandatory ASADA education sessions (on a minimum of an annual basis);
• implement an education program to ensure that Australian weightlifters on the ASADA Registered Testing Pool and registered athlete support personnel are aware of the risks associated with the use of nutritional supplements to ASADA’s satisfaction;
• refer matters of non-compliance with these measures by Australian weightlifters on the ASADA Registered Testing Pool and registered athlete support personnel to an ASADA monitored AWF disciplinary body for action including loss of funding or other support, membership and/or selection under AWF rules.

These measures have been supported by the Australian Sports Commission and an action team lead by ASADA will be put in place early in the New Year to implement the measures. The goal is to assist Australian Weightlifting to re-establish public confidence in the sport.

This should be very good news for the sport as a whole going forward.

The report also determined that the positive drug tests for BZP by four Australian weightlifters in October 2005 are likely to have resulted from the consumption of nutritional substances containing BZP. We now know from the report that the BZP was legally imported into Australia, sold to an Australian nutritional supplement company for inclusion in a product, and then repackaged for sale.

The report also found that there was no evidence to support an allegation that Belinda van Tienen had any knowledge or reason to suspect that the nutritional supplements sold contained BZP and recommended that unless further evidence comes to light Ms van Tienen has no case to answer in relation to the anti-doping rule violation for trafficking.

I would like to close by stressing the importance of our new power of investigations in fighting anti-doping in Australian sport. It is no longer good enough to just rely on the testing of athletes to successfully fight the war of doping in sport.

ASADA, as it is now structured, is an organisation that investigates as well as tests, realigning itself from the old model that relied solely on testing. Of the 8 anti-doping violations under the WADA code, testing will detect only one.

Detection of the remaining seven including serious matters such as trafficking and administration rely heavily on professional and thorough investigations.

This is the new model for anti-doping detection and ASADA is now in the forefront of implementing this new model. Never before in the history of Australian sport has an athlete or athlete support person involved in doping stood a greater chance of detection than with the launch of ASADA, and the sanctions are severe.

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Editors note: The ASADA Act (2006) and the ASADA Regulations (2006) place stringent disclosure provisions under the National Anti-Doping (NAD) Scheme. NAD Scheme personal information is information which is either obtained or relates to the administration of the NAD scheme, for example, sample collections, investigations and the prosecutions of Anti Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs).

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