The role of cycling in eradicating doping

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According to President of the International Cycling Union (UCI), David Lappartient, cycling is currently the sport of “anti-doping”. Lappartient took charge of the organization in 2017 and has been involved extensively in repairing the reputation of the sport which has faced several doping scandals. As part of the effort to eradicate doping, UCI has increased the budget dedicated toanti-dopingmeasures by 25%, and has also placed events under the International Testing Agency, which will include investigation of all networks.

While doping persists, the UCI intends to completely remove it from the sport eventually. As a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Foundation board, Lappartient has also called for additional resources to be dedicated by WADA, and the Government, especially in the research of substance detection, and the busting of doping, betting, and match-fixing networks.

Lappartient was recently elected to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which has had its functioning disrupted by the war in Ukraine, prompting the committee to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes as part of a string of “protective measures”. The UCI, however, still permit athletes from Russia and Belarus to participate, without the display of flags or any national symbol. Lappartient has personally remained politically neutral, and firmly believes that the spirit of the Olympic Movementsince 1894, has been to unite people through sport, and that the organization should remain as politically neutral as possible, even if its individual members may have their own political affiliations.

The UCI Cycling World Championships are set to be held in Glasgow for the first-time next year, where it will include 13 disciplines, five of which were a part of Tokyo 2020. These include BMX freestyle, BMX Racing, road biking, mountain biking and track biking, and intends to cap the participants to a pool of 10,500 athletes. The UCI is also seeking to include BMX flatland, team time trial mixed relay, mountain bike short track, and e-cyling, as these would not need extra athletes or quotas. However, UCI’s priority remains the inclusion of the Olympic disciplines.