The FISU Medical Committee met on Monday, 8 June, to chart the roadmap for the term till 2023. The 14 members of the Committee that was formed at the end of 2019 met virtually to set the agenda for the next few years.
One of the main topics that will be tackled by this new Committee is the drafting of the new FISU anti-doping regulations, in line with the new WADA 2021 Code. In November 2019, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) published the 2021 World Anti-Doping Code and International Standards which all signatories including International Federations must adapt their own rules to, by January 2021.
“The new FISU anti-doping regulations will be in place as required by WADA in early January 2021,” said FISU Secretary General-CEO Eric Saintrond.
The Chair of the Medical Committee, Prof. Dusan Hamar, presented a report about the preparations for the next four editions of the FISU World University Games; namely Lucerne 2021, Chengdu 2021, Lake Placid 2023 and Ekaterinburg 2023.
“During the WADA World Conference held in Katowice, Poland in November 2019, the World Anti-Doping Agency passed an updated Code on Doping in Sport,” explained Prof. Dusan Hamar. “Subsequently during the year 2020, WADA signatories like us are obliged to modify their regulations in order to comply with the most recent version of the Code, in order to be valid from 1 January 2021.”
“The original plan of the FISU Medical Committee was to prepare a draft and a revision through meetings in April and May,” said Prof. Hamar. “But due to the Covid-19 crisis, both meetings had to be cancelled and plans modified. Finally we met on 8 June via video conference and during this conference, the most important changes resulting from the recent WADA code were summarized by Doping Control Coordinator Thomas Crisp.”
“The Committee agreed that as Chair, I will prepare the first draft, respecting the specific position FISU has, as a major event organiser. The draft will then be reviewed by Tapio Kalio, MD, Thomas Crisp, MD and Jose Terreros Blanco, and Janice Harvey. The International Testing Agency (ITA) experts will also be included in the reviewing process. The revised version, should be ready by October.”
The FISU Medical Committee will then meet in late October to finalise the new anti-doping regulations and also to prepare the medical supervision of the Lucerne and Chengdu World University Games.