“As far as the Russian anti-doping agency is concerned it’s a matter again of making sure that it operates independently of the government of Russia, even though it will be funded by it”.
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WADA was created 16 years ago to establish consistency with anti-doping policies and regulations with sports organizations in the world.
A report released last week by a WADA-appointed independent commission detailed corruption inside Russia’s anti-doping program and its track team.
In addition, it was reported on November 15 that athletics may not be represented at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
According to Canadian Richard Pound, the former head of the World Anti-Doping Agency and vice-president of the worldwide Olympic Committee, the recent findings are “the tip of the iceberg”.
In addition to Russias Anti-Doping Agency and the national anti-doping agencies in Andorra, Israel, Argentina, Bolivia and Ukraine by WADA were declared as non-compliant.
“WADA 2 put strong strategy in place & testing will be done @ cost of country declared non-compliant”.
Amongst the charges, the report said the presence of Russian security services in the Moscow anti-doping laboratory “actively imposed an atmosphere of intimidation on laboratory process and staff”. “Nobody has turned around and said “By the way, this is how we are going to pay for it”. “The world is watching and we have acted”.
“Nothing attracts your attention like a deadline, then having to explain to your countrymen why you’re not at the Olympics”, he said.
“Unless we want to be relegated to an impotent bureaucracy, we have to fulfill our promise to clean athletes and take action as requested by them”, Tygart said.
WADA president Craig Reedie said he’s open to expanding the Russian probe if evidence surfaces to justify that.
“It’s a pivotal moment for WADA”.
The chair of WADA’s athlete committee, Beckie Scott, told the agency’s board she has been approached by athletes around the world wondering why track and field is the only Russian sport being investigated. He said there is a high probability that athletes in other sports in Russian Federation were involved in the country’s doping program.
Olympic champion Edwin Moses thought he had seen the worst back in his day, when Ben Johnson’s doping tainted the Seoul Olympics, but has now been reminded that, yes, things really can get worse.
There’s a lot of debate about how Russia’s path to compliance will be monitored by WADA, and whether any shortcuts will be taken, with less than nine months to go before the torch is lit.
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“I understand why they feel like that but it might not be the right solution”.
