Fix drug watchdog
When the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) published an astonishing report last year accusing Russia’s track-and-field team of systematic government-supported abuse of banned substances, it left out one key detail: apparently, the watchdog had known about the problem for years, and done nothing about it.
A New York Times investigation has revealed that WADA, which is based in Montreal and partly funded by Canadian tax dollars, chose to bury widespread evidence of doping, including whistleblowers’ first-hand accounts, rather than make political waves. The revelations highlight shortcomings of the agency’s design that undermine its important mandate to protect the integrity of international sport.
In one case, a Russian discus thrower named Darya Pishchalnikova wrote to WADA that she had taken banned substances at the 2012 London Olympics, where months earlier she had won a silver medal. She said she had been instructed to dope by Russian sports authorities, and asked for help in exposing her team’s corruption. But rather than investigate Pishchalnikova’s claims, the agency forwarded her email to the very Russian officials she had accused of wrongdoing.
Her note was by no means the only indication that something was amiss. A whistleblower from Russia’s anti-doping agency sent more than 200 emails over several years beginning in 2010 urging WADA to investigate his country’s cheating. But only after a German journalist publicly exposed the system of doping in late 2014 did the agency finally commission an independent inquiry. (The resultant report recommended that Russia’s athletics team be barred from participating in the upcoming Rio Games.)
That the watchdog stayed silent for so long gives credence to long-standing worries that conflicts of interest are built into the organization’s structure. WADA’s management ranks are composed of Olympic officials, who have an interest in protecting the Games’ public image, and government officials, who have an interest in protecting their compatriots.
The current head of the organization, Craig Reedie, is also a vice-president of the International Olympic Committee. His reported reluctance to take aggressive action on the evidence of Russia’s malfeasance casts doubt both on his fitness for the position and on the tenability of his dual role.
WADA was founded with the help of Canadian anti-doping crusader Dick Pound in the wake of a major drug scandal at the 1998 Tour de France. Under Pound’s leadership the organization did valuable work to repair the image of amateur sport. But a flaw in the agency’s design has allowed it to become part of the problem. Only once the watchdog is made truly independent of the bodies it is meant to mind can it finally fulfil its full promise.