On behalf of all those who contribute to the equestrian family, the FEI, governing body of international equestrian sport, today announced the creation of a commission on medication and doping
chaired by Dr. Arne Ljungqvist, Chairman of the IOC Medical Commission and Vice President of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
The Commission will offer a robust examination of the way the equine anti-doping policies can be further harmonized to WADA norms in order to ensure that horse welfare remains at the heart of the system and is fully protected.
The commission represents a united effort by all concerned athletes, National Federations, veterinarians and representatives of the judicial process to overcome the grey areas that lie between therapeutic medication and doping and to simplify and distinguish for equestrian athletes the practices that are acceptable from those that are not.
The commission will also seek to clarify all due processes and procedures relating to the analysis of samples in order to lead to a consensus on a simple definition that gives the IOC, WADA and all stakeholders a clear and unequivocal definition of parallel protocols to those used for human athletes in a code that is agreed by all members of the family who seek Clean Sport.
“We are honoured to have the support and guidance of the IOC in our ongoing commitment to a clean sport for current and future equestrian athletes,” said Cayetano Martinez de Irujo, the jumping representative on the FEI Athletes’ Committee.
In his youth, Arne Ljungqvist was active in athletics and competed in high jump. He participated in Swedish athletics team in the 1952 Summer Olympics after having been the Swedish high jump champion earlier the same year. He then left competitive sports to finish his medical training.
After his medical studies, Ljungqvist went into medical research in the field of oncology at the Karolinska Institute and was later appointed professor. In the last years of his academic career, he was rector of the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences in Stockholm from 1992 to 1996, an institution which has close collaboration with the Karolinska Institute in the field of sports medicine.
The FEI is a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Code.
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