Global Anti-Doping Organizations
united as “OnePlayTrueTeam” endeavoring
for a Clean Sport Environment:
2023 International Anti-Doping Seminar in Asia & Oceania

The Japan Anti-Doping Agency (JADA), in partnership with the World Anti-Doping Agency(WADA) and under the auspices of the Japan Sports Agency of the Japanese Government,
held the annual International Anti-Doping Seminar in Asia & Oceania on 12-13 December
2023.

About 200 participants from over 30
countries were united in Tokyo and online.
Over two days, the National and Regional
Anti-Doping Organizations from Asia andOceania expanded their thoughts anddiscussed implementing a better practice fora clean sport environment.
Under the theme “#OnePlayTrueTeam
because #iplaytrue: United Effort for a Clean
Sport Environment”, Prof. Akama Takao, JADA Chair and WADA President Witold Bańka1

welcomed the Tokyo participants of this annual International Seminar. Celebrating WADA’s
25th anniversary in 2024, the partnership between JADA and WADA was strengthened
further to bring the Asia and Oceania clean sport practitioners together to share one goal.
Mr. Aoyama Shuhei, the State Minister of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture,Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and the WADA Foundation Board representing
Asia, opened the hybrid session of this seminar through the video message.

One of the highlights of this year’s
seminar was the panel as “Chat withthe Leaders”. Three global leaders of
the clean sport community, Mr. WitoldBańka, Mr. Olivier Niggli (the DirectorGeneral, WADA), and Prof. Akama
Takao reviewed the journey of thepast two decades, including theirpersonal experience, and shared thestanding outputs of milestones as wellas their expectations for the next newchapter.
The Athletes’ session is always thecenter of the International Seminar.
First, Mr. Ryan Pini OLY, WADA
Athlete Council Chair, shared theaction points of the Athlete Council,
which was reformed its function fromthe former Athletes Committee aspart of WADA’s governance reform.
Followed by the presentation, theAthlete Cross Talk was delivered by
Mr. Witold Bańka, Dr. Murofushi Koji
OLY (the Commissioner, Japan Sports Agency, and member of Executive Committee ofWADA), Mr. Olivier Niggli, and Mr. Ryan Pini OLY. The messages from the athlete leaders
united the participants by proposing further steps for taking the athlete-centered approachand athletes’ engagement in a meaningful and effective way.

2The morning of Day 2 was the workshop session with the theme “Stakeholders
Engagement for the 2027 Code and International Standards”. Mr. Tom May, Mr. Kevin
Haynes from WADA, and Dr. Yamamoto YaYa, Director of JADA Education Department aswell as WADA Education Committee, led the workshop. The participants were divided into
two groups and exchanged their pinion about the updates for the 2027 Code andInternational Standards based on the “concept paper” already circulated by WADA. Since
the International Standard for Education (ISE) has already closed the first engagement
phase, the participants actively discussed the possible directions of ISE update.
In anticipation of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Ms. Mairi Irvine of theInternational Testing Agency (ITA) shared the Pre-Games Education Program for the Major
Events, specifically for the 2024 Gangwon YOG and the Paris 2024 Olympics. The JADA
Education team member, Ms Hori Sayakaand Ms Morokoshi Yuka, introduced thesignificance of building a partnership with
the national stakeholders. In Japan, theEducation Strategic Plan is in place toimplement ISE since 2021. In accordancewith the strategic plan, JADA has a “Major
Event Agreement” with the JapaneseOlympic Committee (JOC) and Japanese
Paralympic Committee (JPC) to ensure theathletes and athlete support are educated before they are sent for the Major Events. The
participants raised interest in those effective education approaches to protect the rights ofathletes and to protect a clean and fair sport.
The last key session of this seminar was to share the highlights of the workshop
discussions by Mr. Gobi Nair, Director General, SEARADO. The participants also had theopportunity to ask questions and exchange their practices and solutions to make theirprogram better and well-equipped. Both Tokyo and online participants reflected on thetakeaways from the intensive two days to better incorporate them into the clean sport
environment as “OnePlayTrueTeam”.

3From Day2 Group Discussion by Tokyo Participants

14 December 2023

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