The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced today that the 1 million Norwegian Kroner (US $136,000) to be paid to the Agency by a Norwegian television company will be used to further develop the organization’s Athlete Passport program.
The money will be paid to WADA by Norway’s TV2 Company. TV2 announced yesterday that it would pay a total of 5 millions Kroner (US $678,000) to WADA and to the Norwegian Olympic Committee and Confederation of Sports to help battle doping in sport after the television company retracted a documentary on alleged doping by Norwegian Olympic athletes.
‘I am not pleased with what happened in Norway these last days and with the false accusations that were made’, said Harri Syväsalmi, WADA’s director general.
‘But I am very grateful to the Norwegian Olympic Committee for its contribution. We are pleased to have the extra funding to be used for one of our most important programs.
‘The Athlete Passport program is an integral part of our efforts at WADA to involve athletes directly in the fight against doping and we believe further development of this program is the best way to use this money.’
Through the Passport program, initiated by Norwegian Olympian Johann Olav Koss, athletes can tangibly show their commitment against doping in sport.
Each athlete that signs up receives a paper passport in which his or her entire testing history can be recorded. They also have access to their history on line through a password-protected website.
The passport program is also an important method by which athletes can report on-line their whereabouts information at any given time and make themselves available for out-of-competition testing. More than 2,000 athletes have already signed up for the program.
The money received from TV2 in 2003 will be used to enhance the on-line features of the program and will allow WADA to offer the Passport to more athletes at future international events, Syväsalmi said.
For further information please contact:
Frédéric Donzé
Wada
Media relations manager
T: 1-514-904-8820
M: 1-514-979-8820
E: mailto:frederic.donze@wada-ama.org