Strengthening clean sport around the world: the ITA signs its first collaboration agreements with Regional Anti-Doping Organizations

THE INTERNATIONAL TESTING AGENCY (ITA) HAS SIGNED COLLABORATION AGREEMENTS WITH THE CENTRAL ASIA REGIONAL ANTI-DOPING ORGANIZATION (RADOCA) AND THE PAN AMERICAN REGIONAL ANTI-DOPING ORGANIZATION (PAN RADO). THESE FIRST AGREEMENTS BETWEEN THE ITA AND THE REGIONAL ANTI-DOPING ORGANIZATIONS (RADOS) SEEK TO FACILITATE THE SHARING OF INTELLIGENCE AND INFORMATION AND A MORE EFFICIENT PLANNING OF DOPING CONTROLS IN THE REGIONS REPRESENTED BY BOTH RADOS, AS WELL AS COLLABORATION IN THE AREA OF ANTI-DOPING AT LEVEL OF EDUCATION

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) created the RADO program in 2004 to strengthen the protection of athletes in regions where countries organize their anti-doping efforts within regional conglomerates. There are currently 12 RADOs that bring together 119 countries from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America and Oceania.

The ITA has now, for the first time, signed collaboration agreements with two RADOs representing Central Asia and Central and South America, RADOCA and PAN RADO in line with their commitment to further enhance clean sport efforts around the world. through close cooperation with anti-doping organizations. RADOCA is responsible for promoting and coordinating clean sport efforts for its eight member countries in Central Asia: Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. It was founded by the National Olympic Committees and government representatives of its member countries in 2006 and is headquartered in Almaty, Kazakhstan. PAN-RADO, based in Panama, was established in 2015 to lead the anti-doping efforts of its member countries Belize, Bolivia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Puerto Rico.

ITA’s partnership with PAN-RADO and RADOCA is focused on harmonizing testing efforts to ensure effective allocation of intelligence-based resources and programs both nationally and internationally. The collaboration also supports the exchange of information between the ITA and partner RADOs for the benefit of potential investigations and intelligence-based doping controls in countries and for the athletes for whom they are responsible. Finally, the collaboration also extends to the identification of mutual efficiencies and opportunities for capacity building in the area of anti-doping education.

“We are very pleased to welcome PAN-RADO and RADOCA as partners for clean sport and to collaborate more closely with them in the future,” says ITA CEO Benjamin Cohen. “These two organizations represent groups of countries that are highly relevant to the sports we oversee. With these partnerships, we are able to more effectively test in these regions to the benefit of both the RADOs we partner with and the ITA’s independent programs for International Federations and large event organizers. In addition, the exchange of information between anti-doping organizations is critical to the success of doping offense investigations.”

“RADOCA focuses its efforts on building anti-doping capacity and strengthening anti-doping programs in RADOCA member countries. But the achievement of these main objectives is not possible without developing fruitful alliances with other Anti-Doping Organizations. RADOCA is proud to sign a collaboration agreement with ITA that will help both RADO and NADOs in the Central Asia region to join their efforts to protect the rights of clean athletes. This agreement will help protect and develop the fundamental value of sport that must be embraced both on and off the pitch in the Central Asian region.”
Manuel Villalobos, Executive Manager of the Pan American Anti-Doping Regional Organization: “ORAD-PAN continues to strengthen ties between the countries of the region and work hard in the fight against doping. Our objective remains valid as an organization in making member countries feel supported. We feel very pleased and satisfied to create this collaboration agreement with ITA to fulfill this purpose. Our highest priority with our NADO’s is to protect the integrity, respect, inclusion and health of all our athletes and we are sure that together we can achieve it”.