WADA Publishes List Of Banned Coaches And Support Staff For Doping Violations; Italy Leads Tally With 61

A new rule by the World Anti-Doping Agency that seeks to punish non-athletes who have violated an anti-doping rule violation has resulted in a list of 113 banned coaches, physicians and other athlete support personnel who are forbidden from interacting with athletes.

The list published by WADA has 114 names, but Turkish coach Sevinc Esmer is listed twice. (He must have done something really, really wrong.)

The “Prohibited Association” list, according to WADA, allows world and national sport federations to know which individuals have had a hand in providing illegal substances or allowing doping practices to take place. It also gives athletes the ability to avoid those individuals who have been proven to create an environment where doping is allowed. The list was released earlier this week by WADA.

WADA does not overtly state that athletes who associate themselves with a person on the “Prohibited Association” list will receive any punishment. By being on the list, however, these support personnel are excluded from working with athletes in the same way that athletes are banned from competition when they receive a doping violation.

“This new ‘Prohibited Association’ rule sends a clear message to athletes: do not associate with individuals that have breached anti-doping rules as they could encourage you to cheat the system and to rob your fellow athletes of their right to clean sport,” said WADA President Craig Reedie.

Italy has 61 individuals on the list, the most of any country. Fifteen of those Italians have received life bans from their respective sports.

Thirty-six of the names have received life suspensions. Some of those are medical doctors, while others have received criminal charges for drug trafficking. Others were former athletes who became coaches and were charged with allowing athletes to dope under their supervision.

None of the names on the list appear to have connections with aquatic sports. Ba Zhen, Physician responsible for Sun Yang‘s suspension, will have his FINA ban expire in a few days on September 27th, 2015

WADA list of Prohibited Association personnel

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