Wada shows flexibility with Rusada reinstatement

BUENOS AIRES:

The World AntiDoping Agency’s (Wada) decision last month to reinstate the Russian antidoping agency (Rusada) showed flexibility, said Russian whistleblower Vitaly Stepanov on Friday.

Stepanov, a former employee of Rusada and his wife, track and field athlete Yulia, went public about doping in Russia back in 2014 triggering an avalanche of revelations.

Those led to a string of international investigations and a three-year ban of Rusada, the country’s athletics team and eventually the Russian Olympic team at this year’s Winter Olympics where some Russians competed as neutrals.

The Stepanovs had gone public with their revelations after Wada at the time had failed to act on their information.

Since the scandal broke the Stepanovs, who fled from Russia for fear of their lives, have been working closely with Wada.

“My personal feeling about the reinstatement of Rusada is the fact that Wada has shown the ability to be flexible

and negotiate with the side that committed sports crimes,” Vitaly Stepanov told an Olympic forum via Skype.

Gunter Younger, Wada’s Director of Intelligence and Investigations, said more whistleblowers were now coming forward in the wake of the Stepanovs’ co-operation, saying “400 cases were registered.”

“We have many whistleblowers in Russia. It’s the Russians who took their system down and we have to help them to get back as athletes,” he told the forum.

Rusada was suspended in 2015 after an independent Wada report carried out by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren outlined evidence of massive statebacked, systematic doping and cover-ups in Russian sport, allegations which Moscow denied.

But Wada readmitted it last month despite not fulfilling all criteria, saying failure to allow access to stored samples in the Moscow laboratory by year’s end would lead to a renewed ban.