Marcelo Magalhães, the Secretary of Sport in Brazil, recently invited a professor and biochemist to be in charge of the Brazilian Doping Control Authority (ABCD). LC Cameron is a Professor at the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO). Cameron has not confirmed or denied his acceptance of the position, according to Brazilian news source Lance!
Cameron’s transfer could have him replace the former gymnast and lawyer Luisa Parente. Parente at the time of this report hasn’t stepped down. This would be one of the first major changes made by Magalhães, who is also new to his own position.
Cameron has 20 years of experience in doping control and was the Head of the Department of Genetics and Molecular Biology at UNIRIO. He worked on the Olympic Laboratory of the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB) project and oversaw the defense of many doping cases. Brazilian swimmer Gabriel Santos, who’s one-year suspension was revoked earlier this year, had Cameron on his defense team.
The ABCD was created in 2011 to control anti-doping within Brazil’s national sports scene, also for Rio de Janeiro to put in a bid to host the 2016 Olympics. Right around this time was when the Brazilian world record holder Cesar Cielo and World Champion Nicholas Santos doping punishments were upheld.
The country’s national anti-doping organization was declared out of compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code in 2016 but was removed from the non-compliance list in early 2017. They were originally put on the list due to not drug testing their own athletes in a time window leading up to the 2016 Rio Olympics. Later that year Brazil’s swimming federation created their own five-member panel responsible for judging doping cases within aquatic sports in the country.
WADA‘s testing measures throughout the world have been on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but promise to return to focusing on clean sport once normalcy resumes.