WADA made bad deal with Russia: Mclaren
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND The Canadian lawyer who investigated the state-backed doping scheme by Russia when it hosted the 2014 Olympics said the World Anti-doping Agency rushed into accepting a bad deal by reinstating the country’s drug-testing program.
Richard Mclaren told The Associated Press he suspected there were “loopholes” in the deal that Russia could exploit to back out of its promises, including the pledge to give access to the Moscow lab sealed by federal investigators.
“They (WADA) have lost any kind of leverage over the ongoing situation with Russia,” Mclaren said Friday, one day after WADA’S decision angered many anti-doping officials and athletes. “They have been rushed into a decision which they may regret given the outbursts of the athletes around the world.”
Mclaren said WADA also erred by failing to end Russian legal cases in three countries arising from his work. They include former Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko challenging his life ban from the Olympics.
“There’s lawsuits that should have been withdrawn,” said the law professor, who is a witness in Mutko’s appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. “At the very least, why wouldn’t you ask for them to be withdrawn? They left things on the table.”
Asked if he felt let down by WADA, Mclaren said: “Somewhat, yes.”
The decision by WADA to reinstate Russia is a key step toward the country ’s track and field team being welcomed back to international competitions such as the Olympics.
Mclaren was appointed by WADA in 2016 to verify claims by Russian whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov, the former Moscow laboratory director. In two investigation reports, Mclaren confirmed a statebacked scheme to swap tainted urine samples for clean ones through a hole in the wall at the Sochi lab run by Rodchenkov.
Russia has refused to uphold Mclaren’s findings, but recognized the report of an International Olympic Committee panel that shifted blame from state leaders.
In a victory Thursday for Russia, WADA agreed to reinstate the Russian drug-testing agency, known as RUSADA, by easing two strict conditions in a roadmap that had seemed nonnegotiable: Accept Mclaren’s report, and give access to the Moscow lab.
Mclaren said he is skeptical about WADA’S compromise of giving Russia a Dec. 31 deadline to provide the lab’s trove of raw data, and a further six months to analyze samples that could prove doping by possibly hundreds of Russian athletes.
He said Russia could potentially use two tactics to block WADA: consent from the Kremlin-run Russian Investigative Committee, and invoking Russia’s criminal procedural code.
“There are two different possible outs there,” Mclaren said. “What those are, are just a lot of loopholes by which they can back out of and never actually do what they say could be done.”