Russian Anti-Doping Agency may again be declared non-compliant by World Anti-Doping Agency

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Once again, the Russian Anti-Doping Agency also known as RUSADA may be declared non-compliant by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

It was recommended by WADA’s Compliance Review Committee that RUSADA be declared as non-compliant. The anti-doping agency of the still banned Russia continues to have non-conformities relating to national legislation. These items were allegedly identified in September last year and apparently have not been solved.

If they are officially non-compliant RUSADA will lose privileges. RUSADA representatives would no longer be eligible to hold any WADA office. RUSADA would also be unable to host any event either hosted or organized by WADA. Several other programs would be out of reach.

There continues to be unresolved issues related to the Moscow Laboratory’s mainframe computer, which WADA’s investigative team was prevented from accessing several times. When they were granted access, much of the data had been manipulated.

A total of 218 cases have been convicted and sanctioned, with a further 63 having been charged and many more cases still being actively pursued. The nation continues to be under a national ban.

Anti-doping elsewhere

Meanwhile, the national anti-doping organizations of Bermuda and South Africa have been declared non-compliant due to not properly implementing the WADA Code into their legal systems.

For those two countries, they will not be able to stage regional, continental and World Championships, and their national flags will not be flown at any of these events or Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Additionally, six national anti-doping organizations have been placed on a watchlist. WADA has given four months warning correct their current status of non-compliance, they are Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Mongolia, Morocco and the Philippines.   

During the meeting, WADA announced the 2024 list of prohibited substances and methods, with the painkiller and narcotic tramadol added to the list. The ban will begin on January 1, 2024.