Governments back words with action to protect clean athlete |
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19-Mar-2015
Montreal, 18 March 2015 – The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) today announced that the potential of its Special Anti-Doping Research Fund – a partnership with governments of the world and the IOC – nears USD 13 million.
“WADA is very pleased with the financial commitments that this partnership has generated for the fight against doping in sport”, said Sir Craig Reedie, President, WADA. “The fund allocated by the IOC has received the commitment of governments of the world to contribute a total of USD 6,452,296,” Reedie continued. “The funds will provide a tremendous boost to WADA in their efforts to carry out innovative, anti-doping research focussed on protecting the clean athlete.”
“With Olympic Agenda 2020, we are changing the philosophy with regard to the credibility of sports competitions and of athletes,” said IOC President Thomas Bach. “We must consider every cent in the fight against doping as an investment in the future of Olympic sport, not as an expense. This fund clearly shows that we support innovative anti-doping research that will lead to better protection of the clean athletes.”
In December 2013, the IOC announced as part of Olympic Agenda 2020 a commitment of up to USD 10 million to fund social and scientific research pertaining to anti-doping.
In order to access this money, WADA challenged governments of the world to commit funds for anti-doping research by 16 November 2014. The funds are payable in full to WADA by 31 March 2016. Once paid, the amounts are to be matched by the IOC.
At this stage, commitments totaling USD 6,452,296 have been made by China, France, Ivory Coast, Japan, New Zealand, Peru, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Turkey, the United States and Sweden; and, payments of USD 1,787,975 million have been received and will now be matched by the IOC.
WADA’s 2015 deadline to submit research applications was 15 February 2015. The relevant information can be found on WADA's website.
Separately, on 6 January 2015, the IOC initiated its own call for research with the
USD 3,547,704 remaining of their fund. The research will complement that of WADA with particular priority given to research that could lead to enhancement of the life of clean athletes. Applications were accepted at www.olympic.org until 15 March 2015.
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