Earlier this week, Queen Silvia of Sweden took part in a virtual roundtable discussion on the issue of doping and announced a new anti-doping and public health professorship.
Also present at the seminar was Professor Arne Ljungqvist, one of the biggest names in Sweden’s fight against the doping phenomenon and one of the founders of WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency, which supervises and controls the doping situation in any major international sporting event.
The seminar was organised by Karolinska Institute, Sweden’s leading institution for medical and pharmaceutical research. They also house the jury that assigns the Nobel Prize for Medicine.
Queen Silvia gave a speech in which she highlighted Sweden’s leading role in the fight against doping in sport – they were the first nation to sign onto UNESCO’s anti-doping convention – as well as their fight against the public health consequences of doping. In particular, she underlined the concerns of physical and mental health risks for younger people abusing doping substances and the worry surrounding the ever-growing link between doping substances abuse and domestic abuse.
Karolinska Insitute and its connected hospital, the Karolinska University Hospital, have long held a connection to the Swedish Royal Family, with Crown Princess Victoria being born there, as well as both of her children, Princess Estelle and Prince Oscar. Prince Daniel has also a strong connection to the facility, having received there a kidney transplant a few weeks after his engagement to Crown Princess Victoria was announced.
Doping in sport is not a new phenomenon, but it has largely been kept under control over the last few decades. However, with recent events involving the Russian Federation’s Olympic team being banned from international competitions for state-sponsored doping and the 2020 Olympics fast approaching, it is more important than ever that doping is properly investigated and testing becomes more uniform and more advanced.
