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Anti-Doping During the COVID-19 Lockdown

As the 2020 Tour de France looms less than three months away a skeptic could be excused for wondering if the current COVID-19 lockdown period offers a one-time opportunity for would-be dopers in the sport. All the riders have been at home by themselves, very little testing has been conducted, and everyone knows the proposed date on which the racing calendar will restart. This seems like a dream set of circumstances for those who would try to cheat the system. While anti-doping agencies around the world are striving to adapt to the “new normal” with various innovations in remote and virtual testing, will it be enough to ensure clean racing in the months ahead? The president of the UCI, David Lappartient, recently underlined the fragility of anti-doping in pro cycling by pointing out that out-of-competition testing capacity has dropped by about 95 percent in recent weeks. A number of top...

Q&A With Michael Ask, Chairman of the Institute of National Anti-Doping Organizations

Michael Ask, the CEO of Anti-Doping Denmark (ADD) has emerged as one of the world leaders in the anti-doping movement over the past several years. Besides running the Danish entity, Ask is also the current chairman of the International Association of National Anti-Doping Organizations (iNADO). Ask comes to the job with a somewhat unconventional background compared to his peers; he worked for 30 years for the Danish National Police force, where he eventually became chief of the National Crime Agency. Ask is also a former elite-level tennis player and sports aficionado, and after retiring from the police force in 2015, switched gears to join ADD. His pragmatic, no-nonsense approach to anti-doping quickly raised his international profile as an outspoken voice in the field, and was recently elected by the Board of iNADO to serve as its Chair. In that capacity, he plays a much wider role to...