The Fédération internationale de natation (FINA) announced the removal of Dr. Lothar Kipke from the FINA honors list today. The vote by the FINA Bureau was unanimous with the decision taking immediate effect.
Kipke was given an award by FINA in the 1980s for his role as a former member of the FINA Medical Commission. In the decades that followed, it would come to be known that Kipke had helped orchestrate a large, systematic doping scheme to boost East Germany’s performance in the pool during the 1970s and 1980s.
Convicted of 58 counts of causing bodily harm by a German court in 2000, former swimmers alleged the drugs they were unknowingly given by Kipke caused physical changes such as abnormal muscle growth, excessive body hair and a deepened voice according to reporting by the Associated Press.
He had remained on the FINA honors list even after the conviction and was handed a suspended 15-month prison sentence.
One of the promises made by newly elected FINA President Husain Al-Musallam was to bring more transparency to the governing body. Connected to this theme of transparency, was Al-Musallam’s stance on clean sport.
Speaking on the decision to remove Dr. Lothar Kipke from the FINA honors list, FINA President Husain Al-Musallam said, “there is no place for doping in aquatics and certainly no place for individuals who have been found guilty of causing great damage to our sport, and cheating clean athletes of a fair chance.”
“For a doctor to harm athletes in the search for medals is unacceptable and I am proud that FINA has decided to send a clear message.”
According to FINA, the decision to remove Kipke from the FINA honors list came about as a consequence of “extensive consultation with the swimming community.”
Al-Musallam added onto his earlier remarks, stating, “FINA will continue to listen carefully to the swimming community as we address FINA’s actions of the past while delivering reforms for the future.”
“I am fully confident that the measures we are implementing mean that aquatics athletes can be sure of FINA’s determination to protect clean athletes and promote clean sport.”
Al-Musallam and other reform-minded officials within FINA will have the chance to introduce and approve more reforms during the organization’s Extraordinary Congress scheduled to be held in Abu Dhabi on December 18.
Últimas Noticias
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
