Windsor man off to Rio to keep Olympic Games clean
A Windsor man is headed to Rio to make sure the Olympic Games are clean.
Neil Mackenzie, normally a manager with the Windsor Essex County Health Unit, will be a volunteer doping control officer during the Olympics.
Mackenzie is one of 170 doping control volunteers descending on Rio from around the world.
"I will be responsible for running the doping control station, which includes all aspects of ensuring the athlete has a positive and legitimate experience when it comes to anti-doping," Mackenzie said.
It's Mackenzie's third trip to the Olympics. He has done the same job in Beijing and Vancouver.
He's also a doping control officer with the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport.
Mackenzie leaves for Brazil on July 31. He'll oversee doping control at rowing and canoeing events.
"Every sport has its own idiosyncrasy when it comes to anti-doping notifications but the process for collecting samples, managing samples, notifying athletes, making sure they know their rights [and] responsibilities is identical no matter which sport," he said.
Doping has been centre stage heading into Rio as Russia found itself in a massive doping scandal.
Seven Russian swimmers have been barred from the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, including three linked to recent allegations of a major doping cover-up by Russian authorities, world swimming's governing body FINA said Monday.
The International Olympic Committee on Sunday said Russian athletes with previous doping bans would be banned from the Rio Games. That followed the IOC's decision not to ban the entire Russian team over allegations of state-sponsored doping.
Now, with the Aug. 5 opening ceremony approaching, it is up to the remaining 27 international sports federations to vet Russian athletes on an individual basis.
Russia's track and field athletes remain barred from the games by the IAAF, a decision upheld last week by CAS and accepted by the IOC.
