New Director General for International Testing Authority

(ATR) Benjamin Cohen from Switzerland, current director of the World Anti-Doping Agency office in Europe and in charge of international federations relations, is appointed to the position.

Cohen brings vast Olympic Movement experience to the role. He has previously worked for UEFA, the International Basketball Federation and in the UN office of sport for development and peace in New York.

The International Testing Authority will provide anti-doping services to those IFs and major event organisations that wish to delegate their anti-doping programs to a body that operates independently from sports organisations and national interests.

Under previously agreed proposals, the ITA will be able to develop with each respective international federation an "international test distribution plan (ITDP) not only by sport but by discipline".

National anti-doping bodies would conduct the international tests on request by the ITA. Athletes not having the established minimum testing level would not to be eligible to participate in world championships or the Olympics.

The Doping-Free Sport Unit of the Global Association of International Sports Federations will remain intact and become the operational nucleus of the ITA, ensuring the staff expertise required to provide anti-doping services under its new, independent governance structure.

At the PyeongChang Olympics, the IOC is working with the GAISF doping unit to ensure an independent overview of the anti-doping program.

Games organizers say about 2,500 anti-doping tests will be carried out – 1,800 urine tests and 700 blood tests. Of these, 1,400 are expected to be conducted out of competition, with the remainder done in-competition.

After the Winter Olympics, the Independent Testing Authority is expected to assume legal control of the pre-Games testing program. The ITA will take over for the Doping-Free Sport Unit’s clients - around 40 international federations - and manage Tokyo 2020 pre-Games testing.

The IOC ratified the establishment of the ITA in March 2017 in its bid to strengthen the global anti-doping system in the wake of the Russian state-sponsored doping scandal that has rocked the Olympic Movement.

The ITA’s foundation board is chaired by Valérie Fourneyron, with the IOC and NOCs represented by Uğur Erdener and the IFs by Francesco Ricci Bitti, president of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations.

Reported by Mark Bisson

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