The culture minister, Mette Bock, has announced she intends to assist in strengthening the international anti-doping agency WADA in its battle against nations and sporting organisations that don’t adhere to international anti-doping rules.
Spurred on by the recent doping scandal in Russia, Bock wants to give WADA more opportunity to sanction those who break international anti-doping legislation.
“Doping ruins athletics and the opportunity to compete on equal terms across nations in all sports,” said Bock.
“We are talking about cheating here – so there is a need for us to establish a joint front and cracking down hard on doping abuse.”
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Sanctioning change
The Danish Athletics Association and Anti Doping Denmark have praised the government’s initiative, contending that the Russian scandal uncovered a need to tighten up the international anti-doping rules.
They maintain that the international rules, as they are today, do not account for international and national sports organisations, along with anti-doping organisations, breaking the rules.
The five specific proposals that Bock wants to implement are sanctions being uniform, more tools being made available for the sanction system, a stronger WADA, the power to ban entire nations, and recovery through troubleshooting.
