WADA’s Reedie defends Russian anti-doping reinstatement

LONDON: The leader of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) insisted he cares about athletes but admonished them nonetheless during a fierce, sometimes-personal defence of the decision to bring Russia’s suspended drug-fighting operation back online.

“My question to athletes is: What, in practice, is the alternative action to all the statements you have made?”

WADA president Craig Reedie said on Monday in a conference call with reporters, acknowledging the avalanche of protest directed his way in wake of the decision.

Reedie described the much-disparaged compromise, negotiated over the summer and approved last Thursday, as a way of replacing a toothless suspension with a concrete agreement that contains enforceable penalties if Russia reneges.

The key issue to WADA is the handing over of around 2,800 samples and accompanying data that could be used to corroborate doping cases uncovered in the investigation of a state-sponsored cheating scheme designed to win medals at the Sochi Olympics in 2014.

But with no deadline and no further penalties to hand out under terms of the original road map for Russian Anti-Doping Agency’s (RUSADA) reinstatement, Reedie and other WADA leaders felt they had run out of leverage with the Russians.

The new agreement places a Dec 31 deadline on the turnover of the information.

It also is designed to give WADA better access to the raw samples.

If Russia fail to honour the new agreement, WADA can impose new sanctions that have been strengthened since the onset of the scandal four years ago.

“We’ve tried to come to terms with the Russians on how this was to be done and this is the first time since discussing it that they’ve actually said ‘yes’,” said WADA director general Olivier Niggli. “We hope they’ll fulfil that promise.”

Critics of the agreement, which Reedie also defended in an open letter published over the weekend, said there’s no way to expect Russia to keep this promise after being found culpable for such a brazen undermining of the anti-doping system.

They’re also wary that the new sanctions will be enforceable.

“It shows how out of touch they are with what’s happening on the ground,” US Anti-Doping Agency chief Travis Tygart said.

“They’re still living in an ivory tower, trying to rewrite history and justify their poor leadership in dealing with Russia.”

Regarding the other outstanding element of the RUSADA road map to reinstatement, WADA softened their stance on demands that Russia publicly accept findings from the report that implicated the government in the scheme.

Jonathan Taylor, chairman of the compliance review committee, said he understands why critics of that part of the agreement might “say there should’ve been a greater mea culpa”.

“But we do have explicit acknowledgement from the Russians,” Taylor said. — AP