He’s a fox guarding the henhouse
Calls for Reedie to resign as anti-doping chief
CRAIG REEDIE faced fresh calls to resign as president of the World AntiDoping Agency yesterday after the US government intervened in the global doping crisis by staging an emergency meeting at the White House.
Jim Carroll, who is Donald Trump’s deputy director of National Drug Control Policy, was joined by sports ministers from seven governments, anti-doping leaders and prominent athletes in calling for urgent reform of the agency.
WADA has faced severe criticism since controversially deciding to reinstate Russia, with athletes and leading anti-doping figures calling for independence from the International Olympic Committee and more transparency and accountability. Reedie is also an IOC vice-president.
The Americans stopped short of issuing a threat to withdraw funding.
‘That’s an issue of last resort,’ said Carroll. ‘But the confidence of both athletes and general public in WADA has been greatly shaken and we are unified in our desire to reform them.’
After meeting yesterday, the Washington Anti-Doping Summit — representing 37 national anti-doping agencies as well as athletes and government officials from around the world — issued a declaration calling for widespread reform and a ‘robust independent inquiry’ following ‘the recent allegations of bullying and acts of intimidation at WADA’.
In a media conference that followed, athletes, politicians and anti-doping chiefs joined forces in calling for change after a collective ‘loss of confidence’ in WADA.
Yuliya Stepanova, the Russian middle-distance runner who turned whistleblower and now lives in exile with her family in America, gave perhaps the most moving speech. She apologised for her own doping past but said the battle against drugs had to be won because of the devastating health effects it can have on athletes.
Stepanova told how her coach started doping her at 20 with testosterone before moving on to EPO and steroids. ‘Now I have health problems after using all these doping substances,’ said the 32-year-old.
‘My ferritin (iron) level is 20 times more than it should be. Doctors say that my training helps me to use extra ferritin from my body but when I stop training I must find a solution for this problem or I could die from iron poisoning.’
It was powerful stuff, as were the testimonies of Alysia Montano and Katie Uhlaender, American athletes who rightly complain that they have missed out on major medals because they have lost to drug cheats.
‘It has affected my life greatly,’ said Montano before breaking down in tears. Travis Tygart, the chief executive of the US AntiDoping Agency and the man most famous for bringing down cyclist Lance Armstrong, delivered perhaps the most damning assessment of WADA at what he described as a historic event. He said ‘normal business’ at WADA was ‘no longer acceptable’, adding: ‘It’s time for change.’
Asked directly if Reedie should resign, Tygart replied: ‘We’ve called for him either to step down from the IOC or step down from WADA. You can’t promote and police your sport. It’s the fox guarding the henhouse. We’ve been clear about that.’ Tygart, in an interview with
Sportsmail, said confidence in WADA had been destroyed since Reedie, the former chairman of the British Olympic Association, had been elected president in November 2013.
‘When you have an IOC executive board member come and be the president of WADA, the likelihood was all that great work that had been done since it was formed 18 years ago was going to be driven off a cliff,’ he said. ‘And here we are five years later and that is exactly what has happened. The problem our government is having is if the athletes have lost confidence, why is anyone paying anything? We’re not getting a return on the investment. What we’ve seen is a crisis of confidence.
‘WADA has to stop attacking athletes . The leadership calling them misinformed; sending them nasty letters. It’s going to be the end of WADA as we know it.
‘If you have an interest in needing Russia in events because it’s good for broadcasters or sponsorships or the IOC pocketbook, we can’t have those same IOC folks making decisions that are tough.’
Tygart claimed the reinstatement of Russia had been ‘a total set-up’.
WADA, who are holding a press conference in London today, were quick to dismiss the group in Washington last night, complaining that a lack of official representation for them meant ‘only one side of the story was heard’ at the summit.
That, despite the fact that WADA vice-president Linda Helleland was here.