News

 Dear Madam, Dear Sir,

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has just published the 2021 List of Prohibited Substances and Methods (List); the 2021 Summary of Major Modifications and Explanatory Notes; and the 2021 Monitoring Program. The List comes into force on 1st January 2021.

As it relates to modifications, the major ones are outlined below:

1) Substances of abuse:
During the two-year review process for the 2021 version of the Code, WADA received considerable stakeholder feedback related to substances of abuse where it was felt that the use of some substances included in the List was often unrelated to sport performance. Accordingly, Article 4.2.3 was added to the Code, and cocaine, diamorphine (heroin), methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA/“ecstasy”) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) have been identified as substances of abuse in the 2021 List. This means that if an athlete can demonstrate that the use of any of these four substances was out-of-competition and unrelated to sport performance, the suspension imposed will now be three months and may be reduced to one month if the athlete completes a drug rehabilitation program.
    
2) Prohibited Method M2.2:
Chemical and physical manipulation: In accordance with the newly introduced Article 4.2.2 in the 2021 Code, it will now be possible to identify a prohibited method as “specified”. Accordingly, intravenous infusions and/or injections of more than a total of 100 mL per 12-hour period, except for those legitimately received in the course of hospital treatments, surgical procedures or clinical diagnostic investigations, have now been classified as “specified”. This means that an athlete may receive a reduced sanction if it can be proven that this method was not used for doping purposes.

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IMPORTANT for 2022

Meanwhile, implementation of the following major modification to the List will come into force on 1 January 2022.

Glucocorticoids: The draft 2021 List, which was considered by WADA’s ExCo during its September 2020 meeting, proposed prohibiting all injectable routes of administration of glucocorticoids in-competition. While this modification was approved, the ExCo asked WADA Management to implement the prohibition only on 1 January 2022, to allow enough time for broad communication and education of athletes, their entourage and medical personnel so that there is a better understanding of the practical implementation of washout periods to avoid inadvertent Adverse Analytical Findings. It will also allow WADA-accredited laboratories the time to update their procedures to incorporate the revised and substance-specific reporting values; and, for sports authorities to develop educational tools for athletes, and for medical and support personnel to address the safe use of glucocorticoids for clinical purposes within anti-doping.

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We remain at your disposal for any question you may have.

Sincerely yours,
 
Cornel Marculescu
FINA Executive Director