Keeping baseball and softball real: WBSC renews ITA partnership
The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Integrity Unit is pleased to announce the signing of a new contract with the International Testing Agency (ITA), which introduces an increased delegation of the WBSC’s anti-doping program to the ITA.
The ITA and the WBSC have been collaborating since January 2020. After this initial one-year term, the world governing body for baseball and softball has decided to extend its collaboration and build on its confidence in ITA’s expert anti-doping programs.
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The renewed contract includes anti-doping activities that the ITA has already previously managed for the WBSC, and introduces a new collaboration for the education of baseball and softball athletes, which will be managed entirely by the ITA to ensure full compliance with the new WADA International Standard for Education which has been enforce since January 2021. The ITA will remain responsible for Out-of-Competition testing, risk assessment, test distribution planning, Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) administration, the management of Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUEs), results management and whereabouts failures.
“The WBSC is fully committed to safeguarding baseball and softball’s clean athletes and the integrity of the game,” said WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari. “The renewed partnership with a world-leading agency like the ITA reflects this. We have recently created a WBSC Integrity Unit to improve several areas and we are confident that the collaboration with ITA will continue to make an important contribution in this critically important aspect of the sport.”
“We are very pleased that the WBSC has renewed its partnership with the ITA”, says ITA Director General Benjamin Cohen. “This is a real sign of confidence in our work and expertise. I wish to commend the WBSC for embracing the Olympic Movement’s decision to delegate anti-doping operations to the ITA, and thus ensuring independence and harmonisation in global anti-doping efforts. We look forward to protecting all baseball and softball players in the lead up to the Tokyo Olympics and beyond.”
The education activities prepared for the WBSC by the ITA will ensure that bat-and-ball athletes (and especially youth) will continue their clean sport education despite the current restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
With baseball and softball being featured at the Tokyo 2020 Games for the first time since 2008 – the ITA will ensure a harmonized and intelligence-led anti-doping program for the WBSC throughout the year and all future Summer Olympics.
