WADA sees truce with Olympic officials
Rift grew when agency called for total Russian ban
After months of barbs and sparring between Olympic and anti-doping officials, World Anti-Doping Agency president Craig Reedie expects an end to public conflict.
The rift has widened since July, when a WADA-commissioned report detailed a state-backed doping program in Russia for the 2014 Sochi Olympics and across summer and winter sports.
The International Olympic Committee’s leadership rejected WADA’s call to ban all Russian teams from the Rio de Janeiro Games and the agency has since seemed to have fewer allies in world sports.
Reedie said he sensed a truce after two days of WADA-hosted meetings with Olympic officials that “worked beyond my expectations.”
“Any public criticism there has been, certainly from our side and I am sure now from the Olympic movement side, will stop,” said the WADA president, who was also an IOC executive board member in the tense lead-in to Rio.
WADA’s role in anti-doping will be debated at an Olympic summit in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Oct. 8 and IOC President Thomas Bach has called upon his members to bring fresh ideas.
Still, asked if WADA was under threat, Reedie says: “I would be very surprised. Why would it be?”
“We have been under pressure and strain because of cheating in the biggest country in the world,” Reedie said. “It shook the IOC, it shook the (international sports federations), it shook us. We move on.”
The Russian evidence in Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren’s investigation will be revisited, likely within weeks, when his final report is published.