Opinions & Interviews

Doping in sport should be criminalized, Lukashenko says

MINSK, 29 October (BelTA) - President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko deems it necessary to criminalize the use of doping in sport. “We should stop talking about doping. The main thing is hard work. With regard to laboratories, medicine, pharmacology and other things, we have discussed these things more than once. Do everything that athletes need,” the President said at the meeting of the National Olympic Committee on 26 October.

“But with regard to doping, we need to see how things are with it in China, Europe and America. We need to criminalize the use of doping,” Alexander Lukashenko said.

The meeting also discussed the creation of a specialized national scientific and practical center. “After London, it became clear that we need a serious domestic school for scientific and pharmacological and psychological maintenance of the elite sports. We need to immediately start working on the national scientific and practical center of sports. This can be done at the basis of the existing institute of sport and sports medicine, but we need new personnel and new organization of work,” Vice-Premier Anatoly Tozik said.

“I am absolutely not against it. We need to decide on the areas of focus of this center: ranging from sports medicine to psychology, nutrition, and pharmacology,” the President said.

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