On December 2, 2021, at the invitation of HSH the Sovereign Prince, the Committee participated on the Lucciana Pier in the unveiling of the sculpture "Et Purus", a work of the American artist of Israeli origin Sassona Norton, notably known for his sculptures The Edge of Rest installed in New York, An Hour before Dawn, installed in Lorton, Virginia or the 9/11 Memorial in Norristown, Pennsylvania.
This work offered by a Swedish foundation sponsored by HSH Prince Albert II, in this case the Swedish foundation against doping created in 2011 by professor of medicine Arne Ljundqvist, one of the world's leading experts in the fight against doping and also one of the personalities behind the creation of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
The Monegasque Anti-Doping Committee here intends to pay tribute to this great figure in medical research by recalling that this pathologist by training who is also an Olympian for having participated in the 1952 Summer Olympics held in Helsinki (Finland), led head-on a double and brilliant career as a scientist and sports leader.
Associate Dean then Rector of the Karolinska Institute which brings together a university and a hospital forming one of the most important and renowned medical research centers and university groups in the world, also known for awarding the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, he was notably President of the Pathology Department at Karolinska Hospital, then Rector of the Swedish Sports Faculty and President of the Swedish Cancer Society.
In sporting matters, this former Swedish junior high jump, pole vault and javelin champion then Swedish senior high jump champion, was first a member and then chairman of the board of the Swedish Athletics Association; member (1975-1989) then chairman of the board of the Swedish Sports Confederation; President of the Swedish Sports Research Council (1980-1993); member then vice-president before becoming first vice-president the board of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF); vice-president then president of the IAAF medical commission; member of the IOC; representative of the International Olympic Committee to the Foundation Board of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA); Chairman of the WADA Health, Medicine and Research Committee, elected member of the WADA Executive Committee then Vice-President of WADA, a position he held until 2013 and Chairman of the IOC Medical Commission, positions which he occupied until 2014.
The work offered to the Principality by the foundation which bears his name and which he actually chairs echoes the formula of Pythagoras, the author of the famous theorem of Euclidean geometry, according to which numbers govern the universe.
Inspired by a Chinese gesture then taken up in many cultures to mark the number One, symbol of the human being's aspiration to rise to a higher level of knowledge and purity, it represents a hand with the index finger stretched out, adorned with a golden circle to mark the place where the "pure" blood is taken, resting on a base formed by a half globe. 19 other copies, each with a different base, will be installed around the world.
Thus, following the first which now stands in Monaco on the Lucciana Pier, the second will be installed next year in Solna, a town in Stockholm County where the largest Swedish stadium, the Friends Arena, is located. the headquarters of the Swedish Athletics Federation as well as the football matches of the local Swedish Ligue 1 team (AIK - Allmänna Idrottsklubben) and the national team while the following ones will be spread over different continents and set up at places highly symbolic of sport.
The Committee can only be delighted to note that the fight against doping in sport now has its monument in the Principality and hope that many will be those who, going to admire the work, will appropriate its message: that of unity in the world for a clean and pure sport… “And Purus! ".
