(ATR) Institute of National Anti-Doping Organization leaders say "we can’t let the foxes guard the hen house".
The heads of anti-doping agencies are seeking immediate changes in international sport, most notably completely separating doping controls and management from sports organizations such as the IOC.
"Sport should no longer have a role in the executive functions at WADA," United States Anti-Doping Agency chief executive Travis Tygart told reporters following a special anti-doping summit in Bonn, Germany.
"Who’s tested, what’s tested for, who makes decisions when investigations are opened up, who is investigated and consequences from those investigations have to be made truly independent of sport.
"It’s like the fox guarding the hen house," he says. "The fox has an interest in not securing the hen house so we have to remove the fox. That’s our position that is unanimously supported from anti-doping leaders across the globe."
The summit in Bonn brought together the leaders of 17 National Anti-Doping Organizations who endorsed a series of reform proposals including the separation of sport leaders from WADA and offering further protection for doping whistleblowers.
The reforms laid out in Germany are a way for the NADO leaders to find their voice in the ongoing fight against doping, says Tygart. Anti-doping leaders other than WADA president Craig Reedie (also an IOC member) were not invited to the Olympic Summit in Lausanne on Oct. 8 where Olympic leaders also called for an independent testing system.
INADO said the proposals at the summit were not sufficient to enact change in the current doping climate headlined by the ever-expanding Russian doping scandal brought to light nearly one year ago.
"Athletes want to compete clean and win," the anti-doping leaders at the German summit said in a joint statement. "We must restore confidence that anti-doping efforts truly protect the rights of clean athletes, as well as the public's desire for a fair and level playing field.
"All of the reforms agreed upon today, especially ensuring sport interests do not influence the global regulator - WADA - will help to better protect the rights of clean athletes and uphold a level playing field."
Although NADO leaders were not invited to the Olympic Summit, they will continue to seek out meetings with both the IOC and WADA leadership including Thomas Bach and Craig Reedie to further discuss their proposals.
The anti-doping leaders met during a two-day span when the IOC announced the latest batch of positive doping retests from the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympics. Nine athletes from the Beijing Games and eight from London 2012 were sanctioned by the IOC following retests of their biological samples at the Games, several of which will be giving up their falsely-attained medals.
The plague of doping in international sport is expected to worsen as part two of the WADA-commissioned McLaren investigation will be released in early December.
The report will seek to further substantiate the claims of former Russian anti-doping laboratory director Grigory Rodchenkov who says Russian officials switched doped urine samples with clean ones during the Sochi 2014 Winter Games.
WADA deputy director general Rob Koehler says he hopes Russian sport can rise from the ashes and be welcomed back to international competition with open arms. The results of the McLaren investigation could likely delay that welcome for another year.
Written by Kevin Nutley
Homepage photo: Getty Images
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