The National Anti-Doping Center of Ukraine (NADCU) has repeatedly violated the Athlete Testing Code, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said.
In the course of an investigation by an agency called Operation Hercules, it was revealed that since 2012, Ukraine has been notifying athletes of upcoming doping controls, contrary to international testing standards.
“Operation Hercules” revealed strong evidence that the Ukrainian Anti-Doping Agency contacted athletes by phone or through coaches to ask them to show up the next day for testing. Available evidence suggests that the agency frequently used this practice ahead of important international competitions”, said Gunther Younger, head of WADA’s investigations.
It is also reported that during the operation, evidence was obtained that in 2021 the Ukrainian agency deliberately provided the results of the verification, which were taken during the period of the competition, but presented as samples of the out-of-competition period.
“Available evidence indicates that out-of-competition samples were submitted to meet the doping test rate for the Tokyo Olympics,” Younger said.
According to him, the results of the investigation will be taken into account by the leadership of WADA, however, no possible sanctions have yet been reported. Recall that the Ukrainian national team at the 2020 Olympics in Japan won 19 medals: one gold, six silver and twelve bronze.