CC BY
22POLITICAL SCIENCES
THE WORLD ANTI-DOPING AGENCY AS AN INSTRUMENT OF GEOPOLITICAL STRUGGLE
Bao Xiaowei
Nankai University Tianjin City, China
Abstract
The article describes some modern approaches to the discredit of national sports committees with the usage of resources of the World Anti-Doping Agency in order to pile the political pressure on countries on the cusp of the Olympic Games.
Keywords: the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), globalization, sports and politics, Olympic movement, the International Olympic Committee, sanctions policy, collective responsibility, doping test, Asia-Pacific Region.
Historically, the Olympic Games are an international event that allows raising the credibility of a country on the global stage, as well as strengthening the legitimacy of its government and national love for the country. However, such global sporting events can at the same time lead to the converse effect in case of the failure of the national team. According to the Professor of the Loughborough University, the UK, the modern globalized sport of records can not only promote the image of a state but also can become the source of shame or even financial collapse [1].
Nowadays many countries are interested in the promotion of their national interests through sporting events, thus, the Olympic movement becomes a sort of world ring for the build-up of the foreign image of these countries. The seventh President (1980-2001) of the International Olympic Committee Juan Antonio Samaranch noted in his article called "Sport and politics" that the current international relations have a negative influence on the Olympic movement [2]. According to the article, this impact should be properly suppressed, as the Olympic Games are out of tune with the political interests of the countries, and their goal consists in the development of peace and prosperity, as well as in the development of mutual understanding, solidarity, friendship, and ethics.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA, Montreal, Canada) as an autonomic department was founded in 2001, after the resignation of the prominent politician Juan Antonio Samaranch. Up to its foundation, the International Olympic Committee dealt with the usage of the banned drugs by itself.
Although the WADA was founded in 2001 as an autonomic department whose activity was directed to the control of the intake of the banned drugs, nowadays the substitution of goals and tasks within the framework of the fair sporting games on the global stage is observed. Thus, for example, the WADA attempts to take the leading position, trying to put the International Olympic Committee on the back burner. The Agency tries to invest itself with authority to make decisions concerning the excluding of sportsmen who did not take any banned drugs within the collective responsibility from the participating in the Olympic Games, as well as to deprive the countries of the opportunity to hold the large-scale sporting events. Thus, the WADA
being under the control of the interested states can become a geopolitical bargaining tool with help of which could be discredited by both countries and nations.
The current situation in the arena of the Winter Olympics - 2022 in Beijing demonstrates not only the political games of the leading countries but also shows the high achievements of medical drugs and the profitable struggle against their use. So, in advance in January 2022, WADA adopted new rules for the so-called "therapeutic exceptions" (TUE). The changes affected the dosages of the drugs used by the "sick" athletes, which provide them with a daily lifestyle. Namely:
- Glucocorticoids (steroid hormones that produce cortisol, also known as the "stress hormone");
- Albuterol (Salbutamol, an asthma drug that allows more blood flow to the lungs of asthmatics). At the same time, for the first time, WADA banned the use of the new steroid substance BPC-157 (growth hormone).
According to the new rules, WADA permits therapeutic exceptions to athletes suffering from such diseases as arterial hypotension (hypotension, low blood pressure), bradycardia (heart rate below 60 per minute), asthmatics. For the use of these substances, world athletes need the opinion of the attending physician with the necessary dosages. That is why we often see asthmatic athletes with problems with the cardiovascular system among medalists.
The therapeutic exclusions of high-performance sports will take place this time in Beijing. Titled athletes with these diseases, under the auspices of WADA, will once again demonstrate the medical capabilities of their countries.
Thus, the decision to take part in the Beijing Olympics - 2022 has already been confirmed by titled Western athletes repeatedly appearing on the lists of "diseases": Jessie Diggins, US team skier, gold medalist in team races in Pyeongchang (2018), asthmatic, often uses albuterol during performances. Brittany Bowe is an American speed skater, two-time world champion in sprint all-around (2015 and 2016), and four-time world champion in individual distances, suffers from postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), takes cardiovascular drugs. Norwegian Olympic champion Maiken Caspersen Falla, supported the idea that asthma medications do not affect the performance of
athletes, saying that they are officially legalized and can be used by all professional skiers who have therapeutic indications for taking them. Another Norwegian athlete, Therese Johaug, a three-time Olympic medalist and reigning World Cup champion in 2016, tested positive for the banned anabolic steroid clostebol but claimed she used the product unintentionally through sunscreen given to her by her healthcare provider [3].
Considering the unfolding situation, the leadership of the countries concerned should develop a renewed national anti-doping program, which should include active collaboration with the International Olympic Committee concerning the countermeasures aimed at the attempts of WADA to compromise the national sports.
References
1. Bairner A. Sport, Nationalism and globalization: relevance, impact, consequences. Hitotsubashi journal of arts and sciences. 2008; 49(1): 43-53
2. Samaranch JA. Sport and politics [Internet]. A Journal of Foreign Policy Issues. 1997. Available from: http://www.hri.org/MFA/thesis/autumn97/sport.html
3. Butler N. Johaug claims it is "very strange" that people disbelieve sun cream explanation for failing drugs test [Internet]. Insidethegames, 2016. Available from: https://www.insidethegames.biz/arti-cles/1043089/johaug-claims-it-is-very-strange-that-people-disbelieve-sun-cream-explanation-for-failing-drugs-test
