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IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE PRESIDENTIAL DAILY BRIEF

WADA Pity

The Lifted Russian Doping Ban Dossier

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care WHAT TO KNOW

What happened? They’re back! Three years ago, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned Russia’s anti-doping agency, RUSADA. This culminated in Russian athletes sitting out this year’s Olympic Games. But WADA controversially reversed the suspension on Thursday in a 9-2 vote, sparking protests from those who believe Russia’s massive, state-sponsored doping program has sent out a dangerous message about drug use in elite sports. The reversal had been expected for a week, ever since WADA’s compliance review panel announced it was satisfied with Moscow’s ability to meet the conditions for reinstatement. The conditions for lifting the ban were eased in June as part of a compromise between WADA Director General Olivier Niggli and Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov. But there are two more hoops: RUSADA must publicly acknowledge the government’s role in doping and provide access to the Moscow lab containing the samples and data that would corroborate the alleged violations. Russia has until Dec. 31 to comply.

Why does it matter? WADA’s credibility is key to its continued influence, and two committee members, including Vice President Linda Helleland, voted against reinstatement, which undermines the agency’s credibility from within its own ranks. “Today we failed the clean athletes of the world,” Helleland said in a statement released Thursday. Now RUSADA is free to test its own athletes, Russia can bid again to host major international sporting events, and the country’s track and field team moves closer to being declared compliant by the international track federation.

know HOW TO THINK ABOUT IT

An internal chasm. Helleland wasn’t the only member of the organization to criticize RUSADA’s reinstatement. When the review panel issued its recommendation last week, it prompted the resignation of WADA member and Canadian Olympic skier Becky Scott. Also, seven members of the WADA Athlete Committee issued a statement decrying their agency’s move. Worth noting: WADA President Craig Reedie’s term is set to expire next year, and Helleland is one of the candidates to replace him.

The whistleblowers. WADA’s saga with Russian doping is nothing new. Russian athlete Yulia Stepanova and her husband, Vitaly, who worked for RUSADA, first wrote to WADA in 2010 alleging a mass doping program. They never heard back, so they secretly recorded conversations with athletes, doctors and officials. After Stepanova was herself banned by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) for doping, she went public, disclosing the scale of Russia’s doping operation on German TV in 2014. In May 2016, Grigory Rodchenkov — a former head of Moscow’s anti-doping laboratory who helped develop the banned performance-enhancing substances used by thousands of Russian Olympians — confirmed WADA’s mass doping conclusions. Before this week’s vote, Rodchenkov wrote in USA Today that reinstatement would be “nothing short of a catastrophe for clean sport.” Now in U.S. witness protection, Rodchenkov was the subject of the Oscar-winning 2017 documentary, Icarus.

McLaren vs. Schmid. Two reports with one key difference were at the center of the reinstatement decision: the McLaren report and the Schmid report. The former, released in 2016, unequivocally confirmed “the existence of widespread cheating through the use of doping substances,” and described methods like swapping clean urine samples through a hole in a wall. The second report, published in December 2017 by Samuel Schmid, disciplinary commission chair for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), reinforced those findings — but did not implicate either the state or the FSB, Russia’s principal security agency, as having knowledge of the cheating. One of the initial conditions for RUSADA reinstatement was for Russia to publicly accept the findings of the McLaren report, but a compromise reached this summer allowed Russia to acknowledge the less condemnatory Schmid report.

Athletes speak out. Athletes and agencies in the U.S., U.K. and Canada have lashed out at WADA’s decision. “Frankly, it stinks to high heaven,” U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart said in a statement. Tygart also called for a complete overhaul of WADA’s executive structure. Prior to the vote, the U.K. Anti-Doping Athlete Commission penned a letter to WADA urging the agency to hold fast to the previously established roadmap to reinstatement, which included accepting the McLaren report and granting access to the Moscow lab. “Do not fail Clean Sport,” the athletes urged. Curiously, the IOC Athletes’ Commission announced it agreed “in principle” with WADA’s executive committee, but wanted to see a “clear process” and timeline for receiving and verifying the lab data.

What does this mean for Russian athletes? It’s important to note that WADA’s vote reinstated RUSADA, not Russian athletes’ ability to compete under their flag in international competitions. The IAAF has not yet lifted its suspension on Russian athletes. It plans to reevaluate Russia’s status at its council meeting in Monaco in December. The reinstatement of RUSADA was one condition that had to be met. The others are that the Russian Athletics Federation (RUSAF) must pay for the costs the IAAF incurred for the doping scandal, and authorities must grant access to the Moscow lab by Dec. 31.

read WHAT TO READ

Russia’s Cheating Is Rewarded by Christine Brennan at USA Today
"Since WADA is in such a ridiculously forgiving mood, why not give Lance Armstrong, Marion Jones and Ben Johnson a big hug and welcome them back too?"

The Independent Commission Report #1, by WADA commission members Richard H. McLaren and Günter Younger
"The coaches are supported in their doping efforts by certain medical professionals. Moreover, it is particularly alarming that there appears to be a collective disregard for the athletes’ current or future state of health."

watch WHAT TO WATCH

Trailer for the 2017 documentary, Icarus

"If this is true, it is an unimaginable level of criminality."

Doping in Sport: ‘I Can’t Be Complacent’ Says WADA President Sir Craig Reedie

"People have to understand that this is an ongoing and changing situation, every minute of every day."

say WHAT TO SAY AT THE WATERCOOLER

Everything old is new again. While doping has caused huge scandals in the Olympics and other major sporting events like the Tour de France in recent years, before 1960 stimulants among competitive athletes were often considered no big deal. In 1904, American runner Thomas Hicks used a combination of strychnine, egg white and brandy on his way to winning an Olympic gold medal. Drug testing wasn’t introduced until the 1968 Games — and even now, WADA has reported that testing likely catches only 2 percent of doping athletes.

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