Russian Anti-Doping Agency Suspended

WADA also accused Russian Federation of intentionally destroying over a thousand test samples from athletes. Is the world now supposed to take Russian Federation, after Pound said its doping program “sabotaged” the London Olympics, at its word?

General Assembly in Prague was an opportune venue for global Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach to drive home his latest idea to fund an intelligence testing unit that would reinforce the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

The Russian anti-doping agency said in a statement Thursday it “is already carrying out work to rectify all the shortcomings that have been brought to light”, including co-operation with WADA on appointing outside experts to oversee reforms.

“The establishment of these guiding principles with the approval of the inspection team’s independent chair Rune Andersen establish a clear path upon which the verification criteria will be established”, IAAF president Sebastian Coe said. “The only sanction is that enoughis enough”.

The credibility of Russian athletics has been under huge scrutiny.

“In a sense, I don’t care whether you’re there with clean athletes if the only reason is fear of getting caught, as opposed to thinking that’s the right thing to do”.

“Israel, along with a small number of other countries, was unexpectedly announced as non-complaint with the WADA guidelines”, said Schreiber. “My hope is that there is not a generation of athletes that have their dreams stolen from them too”.

Measures include identifying and sanctioning anyone involved in the doping scandal, with All-Russia Athletic Federation expected to establish an “effective operational anti-doping framework”. “A strong deterrent message must be sent”. In addition, Russia, with the help of worldwide monitors and testers, will have to create a transparent system of testing athletes. “We have been approached from athletes from around the world, and the view we are hearing is ‘Why just athletics?”

Ugarova said investigators had not attempted to contact her, although the report said investigators had sought an interview with her three times by email. “It’s a pivotal moment for WADA”. However, WADA did not move to investigate doping in other Russian sports, though several top athletes and members of the WADA board had called for expanding the investigation. “The objective is to change behavior, not to go out and do an eye-for-an-eye, and do a punitive thing”, Pound told reporters. This is in fact confusing, as ISO certification is all about management systems and has nothing whatsoever to do with WADA compliance. “I’ve had a lot of swimmers get in touch with me to ask what can we do”, Coventry said.