Neither the Royal Anti-Doping Decree of last October was perfect nor were the requirements to be a control agent well described in the law. This is how Silvia Calzón, director of CELAD, the Spanish anti-doping agency, understands it since last February. Calzón has announced that she is submitting to public consultation the modification of both regulations, which are at the root of the serious crisis of the agency that ended with the dismissal of its previous director, José Luis Terreros.
The conflicting points that you want to modify in the Royal Decree are the one referring to therapeutic authorizations, the location of athletes for controls, the possibility of controls between 11:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. and the more precise definition of the pool of athletes subjected to out-of-competition controls, as well as specifying, with respect to the biological passport, the references to the international standard that applies to it, the results management standard (ISRM). Since the National Court annulled a sanction for a biological passport, this anti-doping tool has been a nightmare for the Spanish system. The practice of accepting therapeutic justifications – use of prohibited medications to treat a disease – with pre-dated prescriptions (prescribed after the events, but with an earlier date) was not only common in Spain, but in all agencies around the world, but it generated cases conflictive ones like that of the Spanish marathoner Majida Maayouf.
It also seeks to modify, through a ministerial order subject to public consultation, the requirements to be a control agent. For blood controls and extractions of biological samples, it will be necessary, as until now, to have a health certificate. However, until now only the condition of being of legal age was required to collect a urine sample. The agent was not even required to know Spanish and there were cases of foreign agents, hired by the German company PwC, who the athletes could not communicate with. With the order a minimum qualification will be required. All agents must also complete a training course before being authorized. The majority of agents authorized in Spain have the Doping Prevention Expert diploma awarded by the Catholic University of Murcia (UCAM). Although UCAM requires paying tuition, the course is subsidized by CELAD and its teaching staff includes some of CELAD’s own officials.
When she was young, almost a child, in Utrera, the afternoons of Tour and Vuelta Silvia Calzón spent with her mother glued to the TV, suffering and getting emotional with Indurain and Perico, and, above all, with Chava Jiménez, so rebellious, so different everyone, so happy at the moment of standing on the pedals and attacking. He was her only idol. Cycling, her sport. It all ended one day in December 2003 when Chava, a client of Eufemiano Fuentes, died, so young, a victim of deep depression and addictions, in a detoxification clinic. His death brought to light the darker side of cycling. The knowledge of him meant the end of Calzón’s love, and that of thousands of fans until then, for a sport stained like no other by doping. She did not lose, however, her admiration for the El Barraco cyclist’s capacity for action. And she learned that doping is a public health issue, capable of causing the death of an athlete, which can destroy the credibility of a sport, an athlete, and even public administrations.
Two decades later, ironically of fate perhaps, Calzón, 48, was appointed director of CELAD, the Spanish anti-doping agency, after its previous director, José Luis Terreros, was dismissed and its management of controls subjected. to the investigation by the Madrid Prosecutor’s Office and the Court of Auditors, and to the criticism of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
More than because of her story of love and disappointment with sport, the profile that José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes, president of the Higher Sports Council, valued when choosing her, was that of a health manager – Calzón is a doctor in economics and a medical expert in public health. – growth in the Andalusian health system that showed her great capacity as Secretary of State for Health during the pandemic.
The legislative modification initiated with the public consultation process are Calzón’s decisions after three months at the head of the agency and changing the management leadership, to improve management and achieve more rigor, more transparency and more efficiency, as translated from the press release that accompanies the information on the appointments of Manuel Sarmiento as number two of the agency, head of the control department, replacing Jesús Muñoz Guerra, a history of the anti-doping machinery in Spain also in the shooting over the management of controls and results; the doctor and former Olympic swimmer Carlos Peralta as head of prevention, replacing Enrique Lizalde, who is retiring, and Montserrat Herranz as general secretary, replacing Ramón Sánchez, who is moving to the Carlos III Institute. None of the three new managers has ever had contact with Spanish anti-doping or its agencies.
All the agency’s actions will be supervised by a newly created control commission, and debated in a coordination commission in which active athletes will be represented, who for the first time will have some weight in Spanish anti-doping policy.
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