WASHINGTON (AFP) — A former Olympic gymnast and US officials on Thursday urged lawmakers to ratify the UNESCO International Convention Against Doping in Sports ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August.
"On the eve of the Beijing Olympics, it is timely for the Senate to consider the issue of doping in sports," Senator Joe Biden told a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
"In addition to the necessity... and the ethical requirement for us to sign on to this convention, I hope it sets the tone and becomes the gold standard" in the global fight against the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport, Biden said.
Eighty-five countries have ratified the convention, but not the United States, even though it played a key role in developing it, Senator Dick Lugar told the hearing.
Signatories to the anti-doping convention, which entered into force in February last year, agree to abide by a uniform set of rules about performance-enhancing drugs, drafted by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
"The convention provides strong, worldwide support for the anti-doping code and for a fair and drug-free environment for athletes," Joan Donoghue, a legal adviser at the Department of State, said.
Gymnast Jair Lynch, who won silver in the men's parallel bars competition in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, said rapid ratification of the convention would "signal to the world the US government's continuing commitment, leadership and support in addressing the issue of doping."
But the problem that has dogged sport for decades, if not centuries, would not go away just by signing an agreement.
"The convention is not a panacea for the problem" of doping, said Lugar.
"Rather, it seeks to improve international coordination in preventing and responding to doping in sports.
"It requires commitments by parties to collaborate on research, education and rules related to anti-doping efforts," he said.
In addition to signalling a clear US commitment to fight doping, panelists at the hearing raised another key reason for US lawmakers to endorse the convention.
"The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has made clear that nations seeking to host the Olympic Games must be party to this convention," said Biden.
"The city of Chicago is bidding to host the 2016 summer Olympics, and so we are acting promptly on the convention, just a few months after it was submitted to the Senate," he said.
Lynch pointed out that the six other cities competing to host the 2016 games -- Baku in Azerbaijan; Doha in Qatar; Madrid, Spain; Prague in the Czech Republic; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Tokyo, Japan -- are in nations that have already endorsed the anti-doping convention.
"Without congressional ratification of the convention, the IOC will not accept a bid from the United States," Lynch said.
Lugar told AFP after the hearing that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was likely to further discuss the anti-doping convention next week, with a view to advising President George W. Bush to ratify it before the summer Olympics.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
