The White House plans to end support of $ 2.7 million a year because it is dissatisfied with the work of the Wada and the appointments to the boards. The threat is based on a report from the National Drug Control Policy office. What do you think?
We are very disappointed because this ONDCP report is not based on facts. It is full of incorrectness and misleading information; we have published the corrections to it. This attack surprised us because a few days before I had a fruitful discussion with James W. Carroll, director of the National Drug Control Policy office; he is a member of our board of trustees. He invited me to the White House. In more than twenty years of membership on the Board of Trustees, the United States has never raised its voice on these issues. They agreed to our reform in 2018 as well as our strategic plan from 2020 to 2024. If you so urgently want to represent the American continent on our executive committee, why didn’t you attend the “Americas Region” meeting in February, at which this was decided ? If you want more places, why didn’t you nominate anyone?
What do you think is behind it?
One might think that the National Anti-Doping Agency Usada wrote the report. Hardly anyone knows that some time ago the financial support of Wada and Usada was combined in one item. You can now draw your own conclusions. I am afraid that one of the goals of this report is to strengthen Usada funding at the expense of Wada, thereby weakening Wada.
Are you saying that Usada CEO Travis Tygart is attacking you to improve his organization’s funding?
Let’s stick to the facts. You speak for us. I don’t want a personal discussion, but a constructive collaboration with the organizations. If you want to improve the entire system, you should start at home.
You mean the Americans?
I’m talking about the big leagues for basketball and ice hockey, for American football and baseball. None of them are subject to the Wada Anti-Doping Code. The NBA, NFL et cetera are also exempt from the Rodchenkov Act (a law that stops law enforcement officers from the United States from persecuting and punishing dopers all over the world). And what about university sports? We at Wada are ready to help Usada address the weaknesses of the anti-doping system in the United States.
Russian athletes such as high jump world champion Marija Lassizkene and hurdle sprinter Sergei Schubenkow, on the other hand, protest against their association’s unwillingness to pay five million dollars as punishment and for the investigative costs of the world association, with which it uncovered the fraud surrounding the high jumper Lysenko. Where does Wada stand in this confrontation?
.
