The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is currently in the first phase of a consultation on a new code, which ends tomorrow, and they hope to have the final code approved by the end of 2013.

The current code has come under the spotlight recently, in part due to the legal battle between WADA and the British Olympic Association (BOA).

WADA insist the BOA is non-compliant with their code due to a bylaw which bans athletes found guilty of doping offences from ever competing in a future Olympic Games, and the two had their respective cases heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Monday (March 12).

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) also last year lost a case at CAS to the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) over the "Osaka Rule" or "rule 45", which banned 400 metres Olympic champion LaShawn Merritt from London 2012, as well as imposing a two-year suspension which the American sprinter has now completed.

Though he refused to comment on the specifics of the BOA case, Parkinson today spoke of the possibility of a four year ban for the most serious doping offences, to ensure that athletes intentionally cheating would miss the subsequent Olympic Games.

But he says that he feels that this should be balanced with more leniency for those who may have unwittingly taken a banned substance.

"If you're going to raise the bar and give out tougher sanctions you have to give athletes more opportunity to demonstrate their innocence than currently is the case, where they are effectively damned by the presence of a substance regardless of how it got there," Parkinson said here.

"We need a counter balance – tougher sanctions for cheats and a more lenient or consistent approach to those who aren't intentionally cheating."


WADA's European office and international federations relations director, Frédéric Donzé (pictured), also spoke to emphasise that they were keen to hear from all involved in the fight against doping during their consultation, though he was tight lipped today about their legal battle with the BOA.

He did, however, insist that the result of the IOC's failed legal battle last year with USOC kept the door open for a similar rule in the future which would preclude athletes found guilty of doping from the subsequent Olympic Games.

"The CAS panel considered that the Osaka Rule was an additional sanction imposed, and the second very important point in that ruling is that CAS said we have no problem with this rule as such – but if you want to have this rule you have to have it across the board," said Donzé.

"We are speaking here about the strength of having harmonised rules and this is the rationale behind what we do."

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