WADA made ‘terrible’ decision: Carey
The head of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport said he was “dismayed and disappointed” at the World Anti-Doping Agency’s decision to reinstate Russia Thursday, ending a nearly three-year suspension of the country’s drugtesting program because of a statesponsored doping scheme.
“WADA is effectively thumbing their nose at the clean athletes,” said CCES president and chief executive Paul Melia.
WADA decided to reinstate Russia after backtracking on two key conditions: that Russia accept a report that concluded state involvement in the doping and coverups and that Russia give access to evidence stored in its discredited Moscow laboratory.
“I think it’s terrible,” said Canadian curler Chelsea Carey. “I think that it absolutely is wrong for them to reinstate them without having gone through the process that they were supposed to go through. Even then, I’m not sure that it was enough.”
Canada’s Beckie Scott resigned her position on WADA’s compliance review committee after it recommended the Russian AntiDoping Agency’s reinstatement last week. She still leads the WADA athletes group.
Christiane Ayotte, the director of the WADA-accredited laboratory in Montreal, said she wasn’t surprised by the executive committee decision, but can understand the disappointment.
“I really doubt the Russians will, overnight, start working against doping and accept recognized standards,” she said. “I will never have confidence that the Russians will have completely changed their cheating ways. Even if they have set up a laboratory in a university, the lab needs to be under trusteeship.”
RUSADA was suspended after the doping scheme — which focused on helping Russian athletes win medals at the 2014 Sochi Olympics — was revealed. The reinstatement development has sparked criticism from athletes and anti-doping officials across Canada and around the world.