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Anti-doping discussion: NADA committee shows progress and challenges!
The annual report of NADA Austria was discussed in the National Council, doping controls were strengthened and reforms were initiated.
Anti-doping discussion: NADA committee shows progress and challenges!
The Sports Committee of the National Council published the annual report on June 12, 2025 National Anti-Doping Agency Austria (NADA Austria) advise. In this context, Sports State Secretary Michaela Schmidt reiterated the commitment to clean sport and strict controls. The report shows that the number of doping samples fell by 15.8% in 2023, resulting in a total of 568 samples conducted. At the same time, control activities in the national program increased by 3.6% to 2,344 samples.
Schmidt emphasized that the focus is on potential participants in the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The selection of athletes for the national test pool is based on a “risk assessment”. Close cooperation with international partner organizations is required to ensure fair distribution of the tests. The NADA annual report 2023 was unanimously approved at the meeting.
Political discussions and initiatives
During the meeting, the opposition's sports policy concerns were postponed, including initiatives from the Greens and FPÖ. The FPÖ called for cuts in the sports sector to be rejected and for sports associations to be given more planning security. This includes a proposal for binding multi-year performance agreements with clear targets. The Greens are also aiming to anchor the sports report in law and expand daily exercise sessions.
Another topic was the revision of the Forestry Act of 1975 and the discussion about a mountain bike strategy. These initiatives have also been postponed to allow more time for review and preparation.
International cooperation and prevention
Mag. Michael Cepic, Managing Director of NADA Austria, took part in an anti-doping conference in Bergen, Norway, organized by Anti-Doping Norway (ADNO) and the Council of Europe. The aim of this conference was to network European anti-doping organizations and develop sustainable strategies to strengthen national control systems. In a press release from the ÖADR it was announced that the athlete Patrick Auer (American football) had been temporarily suspended.
NADA also does important prevention work. This includes e-learning courses on doping prevention and the medication query, which provides information about the doping relevance of medications registered in Austria. This database is based on the current World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) prohibited list and identifies certain medications that are relevant to doping.
Austria plays a pioneering role in anti-doping policy in Europe. The European Anti-Doping Convention has been part of the Austrian legal system since 1991, and in 2002 the Additional Protocol to the Council of Europe Anti-Doping Convention was ratified. The state has a responsibility to protect elite sport from doping in order to preserve the values such as fairness and tolerance that underpin sport.
With various measures, such as the doping prevention plan, NADA coordinates the anti-doping programs and develops individual packages of measures to guarantee the health of athletes and their right to participate in doping-free competitions. Under the current Federal Anti-Doping Act of 2021, information, education and awareness-raising programs for doping-free sport are actively promoted.