Michele Ferrari (right), pictured in Bologna last year, is one of 36 sports support staff to have received a WADA life ban from associating with athletes ©Getty Images

Michele Ferrari, the physician who supplied Lance Armstrong with performance-enhancing drugs, is among 61 Italians named on a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) blacklist of 114 coaches, doctors and other sports support staff involved in anti-doping violations.

The list also contains six Russians, including the former director of the Olympic Race Walking Training Centre in Saransk, Viktor Kolesnikov, and freestyle wrestling coach Imran Anzorov, as well as the US coach of sprinter Tyson Gay, Jon Drummond, Marion Jones’s former coach Trevor Graham, and US agent Mark Block.

 “WADA is increasingly of the belief that athletes do not dope alone, and that often there is a member of their entourage encouraging them to cheat,” said the WADA President, Sir Craig Reedie.

“This new prohibited association rule sends a clear message to athletes: do not associate with individuals that have breached anti-doping rules as they could encourage you to cheat the system and to rob your fellow athletes of their right to clean sport.

“By publishing this list, WADA is helping athletes know which individuals to evade if they are to avoid violating the rules themselves.

“This list will also assist ADOs as it is their responsibility to advise their athletes of the support personnel that have disqualifying status and the consequences of such association.”

The prohibited association list, which has been created based on case decisions and information provided by Anti-Doping Organisations (ADOs), disqualifies 114 athlete support personnel worldwide for varying periods of time from working with “athletes or other persons pursuant to Article 2.10 of the Code.”

Under the prohibited association rule, athletes and other persons are prohibited from working with athlete support personnel that are currently sanctioned, or have been sanctioned within the previous six years, for an anti-doping rule violation.

Former US sprinter Jon Drummond, banned by the US Anti-Doping Agency with the help of testimony from his athlete Tyson Gay, is among 36 sports support staff banned for life on a World Anti-Doping Agency blacklist of 114 names ©Getty Images
Former US sprinter Jon Drummond, banned by the US Anti-Doping Agency with the help of testimony from his athlete Tyson Gay, is among 36 sports support staff banned for life on a World Anti-Doping Agency blacklist of 114 names ©Getty Images

For an athlete or other person to be found in violation of the prohibited association rule, they must have previously been advised in writing of the person’s disqualifying status by the applicable ADO or by WADA.

Ferrari is among 36 support staff banned for life, along with fellow Italians Stefano Agresti, Riccardo Barotti, Vittorio Bianchi, Maurizio Camerini, Cesare Coconi, Viscardo Frediani, Donato Guiliani, Bruno Leali, Andrea Malini, Filippo Manelli, Luigino Miotti, Natalino Moletta, Guido Nigrelli and Carlo Santuccione.

Santuccione and Coconi were involved in the Oil for Drugs doping scandal which began in 2003 on the discovery of a supply system to athletes in various parts of Italy, the catalyst for which was the unexpected death of an amateur cyclist.

Anzorov, banned for life by the Russian wrestling federation, has also received a WADA life ban along with fellow Russians Andrei Kosarev, a rugby physio, and basketball doctor Yuriy Voronchikhin.

Kolesnikov is suspended until October 20, 2018, while weightlifting coach Alexander Babedzhanyan’s suspension lasts until December 24, 2016.

Cycling doctor Sergey Lyakhov is suspended until November 4 this year.

Drummond is banned until December 16, 2022.

Block, who was banned for 10 years, from January 1, 2009, by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) for supplying athletes including his wife Zhanna Pintusevich-Block, the world 2001 100 metre champion, with banned substances from the BALCO laboratory, is suspended on the WADA list until December 31, 2018.

Graham, whose whistleblowing on BALCO eventually led Federal investigators back to him, is banned for life.

The BALCO case also resulted in a USADA life ban for Raymond Stewart, the four-times Jamaican Olympian who won 4x100m silver at the 1984 Los Angeles Games and went on to coach athletes in the United States.

Stewart is another banned for life by WADA.

British boxing trainer Phillip Tinklin, banned for life by UK Anti-Doping last year for trafficking anabolic steroids, is another in the banned-for-life category as far as WADA is concerned.

The WADA list does not contain the names of anyone currently involved in an appeal.

The entire list can be viewed here.



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