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Players who use stimulants could be barred from competitions as organizers seek to include esports in the Olympics.
Key points:
- WADA will work to educate players about the dangers of performance-enhancing drugs, as the growth of esports comes despite the lack of a regulatory body for drug testing.
- The International Olympic Committee has said that the inclusion of esports in future Games could be considered.
- To be an eligible sport, esports would need to comply with the WADA Code, including out-of-competition testing.
The World Anti-Doping Agency and the World Esports Federation (GEF) said they would work on an educational program that could lead to signing the WADA Code.
WADA said it was approached by the GEF to develop a plan around health and wellness that could alert players, who spend hours and even days behind screens, to the dangers of performance-enhancing drugs.
Even though gambling is a multi-billion dollar industry and esports tournaments offer hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money, it has no regulatory body for drug testing.
“The Esport Federation realizes that they now have a real need to start educating their players because they see that there are challenges in substance abuse,” said AMA director general Olivier Niggli.
“They play between 16 and 18 hours a day, they have a bad lifestyle that is not very healthy. First they have a health problem. Doping is one of them.”
“Clearly the way they play requires some support if you play 18 straight hours behind a screen.”
Melita Moore, a GEF board member and editor of The Handbook of Esports Medicine, said it was well known that performance-enhancing substances were used in esports.
But before there can be drug testing, the AMA needs to meet with the esports community and start providing health and performance education and awareness.
“There is no regulatory body in esports. Therefore, the word doping does not exist in the same context as in traditional sports,” said Moore, who has served as a team physician in the NBA 2K League, WNBA and NBA. G. League.
“Which means that there are no anti-doping measures that are or can be implemented.
“I think in the future there will be a regulatory body and doping will become part of the nomenclature used in esports.”
The rapid growth of the world of esports and its popularity among young people has drawn the attention of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which in 2017 recognized it as a sporting activity.
“If one day they could be considered for the Olympic programme, the answer is yes,” IOC President Thomas Bach said at a news conference in 2020. “It depends on when that day comes.”
That day would seem near.
Esports debuted in a major multi-sport event as a demonstration sport at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and will be a medal event at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, which due to COVID-19 have been rescheduled from September 23 to October 8th.
Also this October, the first Pan American Esports Championship will take place in parallel with the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile.
But if esports wants to become part of the Olympic program, like all other sports, it must comply with the WADA Code, which means that athletes are subject to testing, even out of competition.
“There are esports athletes who come completely out of any anti-doping regiment, but they are there and with other athletes who are bound by strict rules and the Code,” Niggli said.
“We really want to encourage now that esports is a little more structured and regulated in terms of the potential use of banned substances.
“We think it’s important that they start moving in that direction.”
A review of the AMA Code will begin later this year and Niggli said it may be necessary to consider adding new rules that reflect esports.
While Moore agrees that the AMA is “on the right track with its approach,” testing is a bit further down the road and the focus should be on education and awareness.
“I think this is where we start the talks,” Moore said. “Although esports is not in its infancy, having started in the early 1970s, it is definitely in an evolutionary phase with over 3 billion players worldwide.
“Until recently, there hasn’t been a pipeline in esports where players have grown up with basic knowledge around their health and performance education, unlike their traditional esports counterparts.”
Reuters
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