In what appears to be a bit of a tell-all with Pro Republica, former World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) chief investigator, Jack Robertson, claims that WADA’s president, Craig Reedie, dragged his feet in dealing with allegations regarding the Russian doping situation “leading to the 11th-hour debate on whether athletes should be allowed to compete in the Olympics.”
If Robertson’s allegations are correct this would mean that WADA has known since last August that they would need to do an independent commission report but chose to wait.
According to Robertson,
We knew since last August and WADA waited until May to name an independent commission to investigate all Russian sport and the lab. In November, after the first investigation press conference, [Olympic cross-country ski champion and chair of the WADA athletes’ committee] Beckie Scott demanded that WADA investigate other sports, not just athletics. [WADA president Craig] Reedie said he’d take it under advisement, and he blew her off. WADA waited until the 11th hour, only once it was exposed to the public by ’60 Minutes’ and the New York Times, and so the IOC could say there wasn’t enough time.
When the International Olympic Committee decided to not ban the entire Russian federation from the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, the decision was made “in part because there was not enough time to implement changes in light of WADA’s July 18 McLaren report.”
Robertson has not been the first individual to criticize Reedie for his postponement of the investigation, claiming that he [Reedie] “was more interested in protecting his relationships with Russian athletic leaders than he was in investigating claims of cheating.”
Earlier this year it was reported by WADA that Robertson has been battling throat cancer, a battle that led to his retirement, but Robertson made a point to clarify that he did not retire.
Full ESPN report can be found here.
I am not sure if my original post went through, my comment was that this is not the first time Craig Reedie was simply protecting his relationships. He should resign as WADA President. Young children should believe in ‘clean sport’. Nick.