Thompson: WADA not fit and should be replaced

PARIS: The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) are not fit for purpose and should be replaced, Britain’s double Olympic decathlon champion Daley Thompson has said following their decision last month to lift a ban on Russia’s anti-doping body.

RUSADA’s 22-month suspension was removed by WADA subject to various conditions but drew widespread criticism from some athletes and anti-doping agencies.

The decision opens the door for Russia’s eventual return to international sport, following February’s reinstatement of the Russian Olympic Committee after the country was banned from this year’s Winter Games in South Korea.

Thompson, the former world and European champion who won gold at the 1980 and 1984 Olympics, said WADA should be replaced because athletes were not being listened to.

“I just think WADA should be kicked into touch and we should have some people that are representing the athlete and the spirit of sport,” he said at the Laureus Sport for Good Summit.

“A new body should be set up because the one there isn’t fit for purpose.” Committee... believes that the decision to reinstate RUSADA as compliant with the World AntiDoping Code is the right one for clean sport and puts WADA in a much stronger position than we were before.

“What the decision means is that either we will have access to all the data from the Moscow laboratory by the end of the year, allowing us to catch more cheats and exonerate clean athletes, or RUSADA will be made non-compliant again.”

Athletics’ governing body have been one of the few to maintain a hard line, with the IAAF imposing their own conditions which the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF) still have to meet before their athletes can compete internationally again.

“A lot of the other sports I think have done a disservice to their athletes,” said 60-year-old Thompson.

“Russia hasn’t complied to some of the instructions that they were given in order to get back into international sport and I think that they’ve all capitulated... for whatever reason.

“I think that athletics has been the one true defender and I’m proud to be part of that family.”

The International Association of Athletics Federations set up the Athletics Integrity Unit in April 2017 as an independent body tasked with combating doping in sport.