Taking on sport’s bad guys
David Howman sees himself as a kid from Hataitai who survived multiple Montreal winters to tackle the criminal underworld on the global sporting stage.
What started with helping Kiwi sportsman Onny Parun, Jeremy Coney and Stu Wilson after opening one of New Zealand’s first sports law practices culminated in taking on Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador, Floyd Landis, Marion Jones and Maria Sharapova in some of world sport’s highest profile doping scandals.
Howman is proud to be recognised today for his 13 years of service to the World Anti-doping Agency (Wada) by being made a companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
Combined with cracking down on cheaters and corruption, Howman’s international diplomacy was instrumental in convincing governments to fund the fight against doping. He also established the first anti-doping code which required an international treaty to be ratified in under 12 months.
‘‘It was a unique set of rules that prevails in every country in every sport in the world,’’ he said. ‘‘You don’t get that with any other set of societal rules. The rules were good; the real challenge was to make sure everyone practices them properly. That’s culminated in the compliance programme which led to the Russian expose.’’
Howman finished as Wada boss in June - first taking charge in 2003 - and is not shy of delivering his verdict on how Russia should be dealt with following its widespread state-sponsored doping. He wants the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ban Russian athletes from the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.
‘‘The Russian thing is bigger than Ben Hur,’’ Howman said.
A Wada-assisted report recently exposed Russia’s five-year doping programme (2011-2015) of elite athletes across 30 sports. Laboratory tampering, performanceenhancing drugs and involvement from the Federal Security Service were all laid bare.
‘‘All those things were so big it’s just staggering. And there are now 600 athletes that are going to be sanctioned as a result.
‘‘You can draw a comparison between Armstrong and Russia. Armstrong was contrite and Russia is not conceding an inch... the western plot. That’s the way they act on the international stage.
‘‘You have to have the IOC in behind you. They didn’t measure up before Rio - that was regrettable. Wada has to take a position that allows Russia to comeback but only after they measure up fully and the starting point is having some form of acknowledgement of what they were doing.
‘‘The Russians target the Winter Olympics so being banned from that would be a real kick in the face. Unless they’ve measured up they ought to be banned.’’
Now back home in Wellington, where he says the southerly is t-shirt weather compared to Canada, Howman has settled into consultancy work but hopes to find a role which enables him to pass on his experience, expertise and encourage other young Kiwis to get involved in sporting politics.
‘‘New Zealanders can add a lot more than many countries. We have a strong value base and known to be fairly forthright and direct in what we say and we don’t have any secret agendas.’’