#Anti-Doping

UWW renews partnership with International Testing Agency (ITA)

Monday, March 6, 2023 - 20:25 By United World Wrestling Press

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United World Wrestling (UWW), the world governing body for the sport of Wrestling, has renewed and expanded its partnership with the International Testing Agency (ITA) with a complete delegation of all areas of its clean sport program to the independent expert anti-doping body.

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY (March 6) --- The UWW has been collaborating with the ITA since January 2019 with the objective to offer its athletes independent and expert-led clean sport programs. Now the world governing body for wrestling has decided to renew this partnership and delegate further areas of its clean sport program to the independent organisation, resulting in an anti-doping program fully managed by the ITA.

Three further areas of UWW’s anti-doping program have been handed over to the ITA in the beginning of February: the administration of Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUEs) for wrestling athletes, the long-term storage of samples and education.

Applications for TUEs will be handled by the ITA’s International Therapeutic Use Exemption Committee (ITUEC), a network of some of the world’s best physicians and pharmacists with expertise in sports medicine, providing a confidential and respectful review of athletes’ medical information.

To increase the impact and deterrence factor of the UWW anti-doping program, the ITA has also devised a long-term strategy for samples collected from wrestling athletes. The retained samples may be analysed up to ten years after the collection date if new intelligence or information obtained from investigations provides specific evidence or if improved and further developed laboratory technology provides enhanced analysis. UWW samples will be stored in the ITA’s highly secured and ISO-certified Centralised Long-Term Storage Facility (CLTSF).

ITA

The ITA will also raise awareness against doping, support the UWW clean sport values, and contribute to doping prevention among all international amateur wrestling athletes with a dedicated series of webinars and by providing ongoing education support to UWW throughout the year.

“I wish to thank the UWW for their trust and ongoing commitment to offer their athletes a high-quality clean sport program run by the ITA,” said ITA Director General Benjamin Cohen.

“UWW have been one of the early adopters of an independently led anti-doping program and were among the first Olympic International Federations to collaborate with us. I am very pleased to see that over the past years our partnership has grown and that today the UWW is delegating all of its clean sport efforts to the ITA. We are very honoured by the trust placed in our organisation and will continue to do our best to protect their athletes and competitions in support of UWW’s values of unity, passion and integrity."

“The professional services delivered by the ITA have met all our expectations since the beginning and this is exactly what our athletes are entitled to demand,” said UWW President Nenad Lalovic. “It is therefore with complete trust that the UWW has not only renewed the partnership until end of 2024 but also delegated the full program to the ITA. We want our athletes to be confident that they compete in a clean environment, thanks to a dedicated team of experts”.

All other areas of the UWW's anti-doping program continue to be managed by the ITA with the same commitment to quality and efficiency following a comprehensive and intelligence-led approach. This includes the entire testing program for UWW, both in- and out-of-competition, the risk assessment and test distribution planning, the Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) management, the running of Intelligence & Investigations (I&I) activities and the possibility for the UWW community to confidentially share any actual or perceived doping offences via the ITA’s secure reporting platform REVEAL. The ITA is also responsible for the administration of whereabouts failures and independent results management of any potential anti-doping rule violations stemming from the UWW anti-doping program. All clean sport activities on behalf of the UWW are carried out by the ITA in strict compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code and its International Standards, with ITA’s dedicated Regulatory Compliance Unit ensuring full alignment with all mandatory rules.

#JapanWrestling

Fujinami to move up to 57kg in quest for consecutive Olympic golds

Wednesday, November 27, 2024 - 12:12 By Ken Marantz

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TOKYO (November 26) -- Akari FUJINAMI (JPN) won't be defending her Olympic gold at women's 53kg at the 2028 Los Angeles Games. That's bad news for anyone aiming to strike gold at 57kg.

Fujinami has announced that she will move up to the next Olympic weight class starting next year, the Japan federation website and Japan media widely recently reported.

Fujinami, who turned 21 on November 11, cited the difficulty of cutting weight for the decision, as well as the historic aspect that no woman wrestler has ever won a second straight Olympic gold after moving to a higher weight class.

"I have decided to move up to the 57kg weight class," Fujinami said after Sunday's East Japan Collegiate Women's League, a team tournament that marked her first competition since winning the gold at the Paris Olympics in August. "Considering my height and my normal weight, I think I can give my best performance at 57."

Fujinami competed at 59kg in the five-team league tournament (one school was a no-show), which was run in a round-robin, duel-meet format with only three weight classes -- 53kg, 59kg and 76kg.

She won both of her matches by fall, extending her current winning streak to 139 matches dating back to her junior high school days in September 2017.

The 1.64-meter Fujinami was actually wrestling near her natural weight, which she says is "about 61kg." But even against two opponents from higher weight classes -- Ikuei University's Ichika ARAI (JPN) was the 2023 world U20 silver medalist at 57kg -- her skills and speed were still overwhelming.

"It has been really hard to cut down to 53kg," Fujinami said. "I felt I lost muscle during the process. I feel I can give my best performance by going down three kilos from my natural weight."

Asked when she expects to make her full-fledged "debut" at the new weight, she replied in a text message, "It will be sometime next year. I haven't decided exactly when yet."

With a full schedule of post-Olympic TV appearances and local events curtailing her training, she has already ruled out appearing at next month's Emperor's Cup All-Japan Championships.

It is likely she will compete at the Meiji Cup All-Japan Invitational Championships in the spring, as that tournament, along with the Emperor's Cup, will serve as qualifiers for the 2025 World Championships.

The move up to 57kg will likely put her on a collision course with the reigning Olympic champion, Tsugumi SAKURAI (JPN). The two met last year at the East Japan Collegiate tournament, with Fujinami coming away with a 5-0 victory.

The challenge of possibly accomplishing a historic first appeals to Fujinami, who last year won her second career world title at 53kg in Belgrade.

"I heard that no [woman] has moved up a weight class and won another Olympic gold," Fujinami said. "It will difficult, but that's what makes it challenging. I hope I can become stronger at the next [Olympics] in Los Angeles."

Two Japanese women -- Saori YOSHIDA (JPN) and Kaori ICHO (JPN) -- have won an additional Olympic gold after going down a weight, but that was mainly because the number of weight classes was expanded from four to six, allowing them to compete more closely to their normal weight.

Among men, the legendary Aleksandr MEDVED (URS) won the freestyle 97kg gold in 1964, then triumphed again at 97+kg in 1968, while Levan TEDASHVILI (URS) won at freestyle 82kg in 1972 and 90kg in 1976. More recently, Abdulrashid SADULAEV claimed the freestyle 86kg gold in 2016, then won again at 97kg in 2021.

Fujinami said she doesn't expect to make any major alterations to her wrestling style at the heavier weight.

"I have no intention of making any big changes in my wrestling style," she said. "I will still try to keep the opponent from getting at my legs, and take the initiative to score points. Still, I can feel the extra weight of four kilos, so how I increase my weight could affect how I perform."

At this year's East Japan league tournament, Fujinami's Nippon Sport Science University was relegated to second by Ikuei University, which won 2-1 in their duel meet. Ikuei got victories from Moe KIYOOKA (JPN) and Ami ISHII (JPN), who both won gold medals at last month's Non-Olympic Weight Category World Championships.