Outgoing <a href="https://www.wionews.com/sports/world-anti-doping-agency-to-investigate-athletes-coached-by-banned-salazar-report-259997">World Anti-Doping Agency</a> president Craig Reedie said on Tuesday the scale and size of the Russian doping scandal that erupted in 2015 had overwhelmed his organisation at the time.

Speaking at the World Conference on doping in sport, Reedie said the <a href="https://www.wionews.com/sports/wadas-russian-investigation-enters-new-phase-219322">Russian doping affair</a> that emerged ahead of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and saw the involvement of a vast number of athletes, coaches and officials was the biggest challenge WADA had faced in its 20-year existence.

"The worst case of system failure in my time as president of WADA or in the entire time of the anti-doping movement is Russia," Reedie told the conference.

He said the level of cheating was "unprecedented," leaving WADA under mounting pressure to work for all clean athletes as the Russian anti-doping agency (RUSADA) was declared non-compliant.

"What it (scandal) taught us when it erupted was that we were not equipped to deal with such a large-scale programme," Reedie said.

RUSADA was suspended after the 2015 WADA report found evidence of state-sponsored doping in Russian sport and the country was barred from the Rio de Janeiro Olympics the following year.

All Russian athletes also competed as independents at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

RUSADA's suspension was lifted in September 2018 amid strong criticism as WADA gradually got access to key Russian athletes' data from the Russian lab.

But in September WADA said it had again opened compliance proceedings against RUSADA after finding "inconsistencies" in the vast bank of historical testing data finally handed over in January.

That means RUSADA are again at risk of being declared non-compliant and thus putting Russia's participation at the Tokyo Olympics next year at risk.

Reedie did not say when a decision on the matter would be taken.

He later told a news conference he thought there would be no repeat of the situation before the 2016 Olympics where it was unclear which Russian athletes were eligible and which were not as dozens of legal appeals were made over the ban.

"I am pretty confident that in the short term - you mentioned Tokyo 2020 - a repetition of that situation is unlikely," said Reedie, who will be replaced by Poland's sports minister Witold Banka on January&nbsp;1.

"I think we are better at spotting these issues. We have better company structures, and we know much more about the business," said Reedie, who is also an IOC member.

Outgoing World Anti-Doping Agency president Craig Reedie said on Tuesday the scale and size of the Russian doping scandal that erupted in 2015 had overwhelmed his organisation at the time.

Outgoing World Anti-Doping Agency president Craig Reedie said on Tuesday the scale and size of the Russian doping scandal that erupted in 2015 had overwhelmed his organisation at the time. Speaking at the World Conference on doping in sport, Reedie said the Russian doping affair that emerged ahead of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and saw the involvement of a vast number of athletes, coaches and officials was the biggest challenge WADA had faced in its 20-year existence. "The worst case of system failure in my time as president of WADA or in the entire time of the anti-doping movement is Russia," Reedie told the conference. He said the level of cheating was "unprecedented," leaving WADA under mounting pressure to work for all clean athletes as the Russian anti-doping agency (RUSADA) was declared non-compliant. "What it (scandal) taught us when it erupted was that we were not equipped to deal with such a large-scale programme," Reedie said. RUSADA was suspended after the 2015 WADA report found evidence of state-sponsored doping in Russian sport and the country was barred from the Rio de Janeiro Olympics the following year. All Russian athletes also competed as independents at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. RUSADA's suspension was lifted in September 2018 amid strong criticism as WADA gradually got access to key Russian athletes' data from the Russian lab. But in September WADA said it had again opened compliance proceedings against RUSADA after finding "inconsistencies" in the vast bank of historical testing data finally handed over in January. That means RUSADA are again at risk of being declared non-compliant and thus putting Russia's participation at the Tokyo Olympics next year at risk. Reedie did not say when a decision on the matter would be taken. He later told a news conference he thought there would be no repeat of the situation before the 2016 Olympics where it was unclear which Russian athletes were eligible and which were not as dozens of legal appeals were made over the ban. "I am pretty confident that in the short term - you mentioned Tokyo 2020 - a repetition of that situation is unlikely," said Reedie, who will be replaced by Poland's sports minister Witold Banka on January 1. "I think we are better at spotting these issues. We have better company structures, and we know much more about the business," said Reedie, who is also an IOC member.

WADA was not equipped to handle size of Russian doping scandal: Reedie

The <a href="https://www.wionews.com/sports/world-anti-doping-agency-to-investigate-athletes-coached-by-banned-salazar-report-259997">World Anti-doping Agency</a> (WADA) wants commercial sponsors to contribute financially to the fight against doping in sport as part of their corporate responsibility, the next WADA President said on Tuesday.

Witold Banka, Poland's Tourism and Sports Minister who will take over the WADA leadership from Craig Reedie on January&nbsp;1, said the organisation urgently needed to increase revenues and being a sponsor of sports events came with a responsibility.

"I am not the Christopher Columbus of anti-doping policy. It is not a new idea to engage big sponsors as part of their corporate social responsibility," Banka told an international anti-doping conference.

"That will be one of the biggest tasks: to convince the big companies to join the Olympic anti-doping solidarity fund," he added.

WADA has a budget of about $35 million&nbsp;annually while the overall spending on anti-doping around the world, including by national anti-doping agencies, does not exceed $260 million.

In comparison, broadcasters pay billions of dollars to secure rights of major sports such as the soccer World Cup and the Olympics.

Olympic sponsors will pay the International Olympic Committee more than one billion dollars for the 2017-2020 quadrennium to be associated with the Games while broadcasters will pay about $5 billion for Games rights for the same period.

Banka said WADA had to find new streams of revenue if it was to continue its fight to root out cheats.

WADA has been struggling with a vast <a href="https://www.wionews.com/sports/wadas-russian-investigation-enters-new-phase-219322">Russian doping scandal</a> for more than four years in a process that has required considerable funds.

Russia's track and field team was banned from the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016 while the entire Russian Olympic team at the Pyeongchang winter Games competed as independents as a result of that scandal.

"We cannot keep raising contributions. We need to find some alternative solutions how we can increase the budget for anti-doping," said the 35-year-old Banka, a former European junior 400m champion.

"We have to convince the biggest partners that if you are a sponsor of sport you have to be a sponsor of clean sport."

The World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) wants commercial sponsors to contribute financially to the fight against doping in sport as part of their corporate responsibility, the next WADA President said on Tuesday.

The World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) wants commercial sponsors to contribute financially to the fight against doping in sport as part of their corporate responsibility, the next WADA President said on Tuesday. Witold Banka, Poland's Tourism and Sports Minister who will take over the WADA leadership from Craig Reedie on January 1, said the organisation urgently needed to increase revenues and being a sponsor of sports events came with a responsibility. "I am not the Christopher Columbus of anti-doping policy. It is not a new idea to engage big sponsors as part of their corporate social responsibility," Banka told an international anti-doping conference. "That will be one of the biggest tasks: to convince the big companies to join the Olympic anti-doping solidarity fund," he added. WADA has a budget of about $35 million annually while the overall spending on anti-doping around the world, including by national anti-doping agencies, does not exceed $260 million. In comparison, broadcasters pay billions of dollars to secure rights of major sports such as the soccer World Cup and the Olympics. Olympic sponsors will pay the International Olympic Committee more than one billion dollars for the 2017-2020 quadrennium to be associated with the Games while broadcasters will pay about $5 billion for Games rights for the same period. Banka said WADA had to find new streams of revenue if it was to continue its fight to root out cheats. WADA has been struggling with a vast Russian doping scandal for more than four years in a process that has required considerable funds. Russia's track and field team was banned from the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016 while the entire Russian Olympic team at the Pyeongchang winter Games competed as independents as a result of that scandal. "We cannot keep raising contributions. We need to find some alternative solutions how we can increase the budget for anti-doping," said the 35-year-old Banka, a former European junior 400m champion. "We have to convince the biggest partners that if you are a sponsor of sport you have to be a sponsor of clean sport."

WADA to ask commercial sponsors for money in anti-doping fight

Craig Reedie, the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, indicated today that he would be prepared to back a complete ban for the entire Russia team from August&#39;s Olympic Games in Rio. 
 
The founding president of WADA, Dick Pound, told Britain&#39;s Sunday Times newspaper that such a ban was &quot;not impossible&quot;. 
 
Friday saw the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) uphold an international ban on Russia&#39;s track and field competitors first imposed in November after a WADA team led by veteran Canadian sports administrator Pound revealed state-sponsored doping and mass corruption in Russian athletics.&nbsp; 
 
The Russia team is now ruled out of all events in athletics in Rio, although Russian athletes training outside the country can apply to compete as neutrals at the August 5-21 event in Brazil. 
 
The IAAF&#39;s decision was endorsed by the International Olympic Committee on Saturday. 
 
But there are fears that the scale of Russia&#39;s breaking of doping rules extend beyond just track and field. 
 
In May, WADA set up a new investigation under Professor Richard McLaren, a Canadian law professor and longstanding member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), into allegations of state-backed doping at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia. 
 
Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of the Russian lab now living in Los Angeles, also gave an interview to the New York Times last month in which he said he switched tainted urine samples for clean ones at the doping lab used for the Sochi Games, with help from people he believed to be officers of the Russian security services. 
 
McLaren, who is due to deliver his full report by July 15, said in a preliminary statement on Friday he had evidence that Russia&#39;s Ministry of Sport was involved in instructing a Moscow laboratory to &quot;not report positive sample results over the period before, during and after&quot; the 2013 World Athletics Championships. 
 
&quot;In the coming weeks, we will learn the outcome of our independent McLaren investigation,&quot; Reedie, speaking at the WADA symposium at London`s Lord&#39;s Cricket Ground, said Monday. 
 
&quot;If his report indicates transgressions of any kind, then there will be a precedent-setting opportunity to demonstrate our collective commitment to cleaning up sport,&quot; added the veteran British sports administrator, who reiterated WADA&#39;s support for the IAAF ban on Russia. 
 
&quot;The world will be watching.&quot; 
 
Reedie said the fact anti-doping laboratories in Beijing, Bloemfontein, Lisbon, Madrid and Moscow had all had their WADA accreditation suspended was proof that the organisation had taken &quot;decisive action&quot; by hearing the &quot;strength of the athlete&#39;s voice&quot; in insisting labs maintain the &quot;highest standards&quot;. 
 
This, said Reedie, was all part of &quot;levelling the playing field for each and every athlete competing in Rio&quot;.&nbsp; 
 
Meanwhile Reedie repeated his calls for increased WADA funding from national governments and also suggested that, for the first time, broadcasters and media rights-holders might want to contribute to the budget. 
 
Reedie said WADA was &quot;punching above its weight&quot; on a budget of less than $30 million a year, which he noted was less than the annual income of Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova, recently banned for a doping violation. 
 
Reedie added that 0.5 per cent of the worldwide sports television rights market would produce a WADA budget of $175 million and that it was in the rights-holders&#39; interest to promote clean sport. 
 
Russian President Vladmir Putin&nbsp;has labelled the IAAF&#39;s ban on his country&#39;s athletes as &quot;unjust and unfair&quot;. 
 
But IAAF president Sebastian Coe, who won Olympic 1500 metres gold and 800m silver for Great Britain at the 1980 Moscow Games, wrote in Britain&#39;s Sunday Telegraph: &quot;We have not prevented clean athletes from Russia from competing, rather the Russian system has cataclysmically failed their clean athletes.&quot; 
(AFP)

Russian athletes training outside the country can apply to compete as neutrals at the August event in Brazil

Craig Reedie, the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, indicated today that he would be prepared to back a complete ban for the entire Russia team from August's Olympic Games in Rio. The founding president of WADA, Dick Pound, told Britain's Sunday Times newspaper that such a ban was "not impossible". Friday saw the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) uphold an international ban on Russia's track and field competitors first imposed in November after a WADA team led by veteran Canadian sports administrator Pound revealed state-sponsored doping and mass corruption in Russian athletics. The Russia team is now ruled out of all events in athletics in Rio, although Russian athletes training outside the country can apply to compete as neutrals at the August 5-21 event in Brazil. The IAAF's decision was endorsed by the International Olympic Committee on Saturday. But there are fears that the scale of Russia's breaking of doping rules extend beyond just track and field. In May, WADA set up a new investigation under Professor Richard McLaren, a Canadian law professor and longstanding member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), into allegations of state-backed doping at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia. Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of the Russian lab now living in Los Angeles, also gave an interview to the New York Times last month in which he said he switched tainted urine samples for clean ones at the doping lab used for the Sochi Games, with help from people he believed to be officers of the Russian security services. McLaren, who is due to deliver his full report by July 15, said in a preliminary statement on Friday he had evidence that Russia's Ministry of Sport was involved in instructing a Moscow laboratory to "not report positive sample results over the period before, during and after" the 2013 World Athletics Championships. "In the coming weeks, we will learn the outcome of our independent McLaren investigation," Reedie, speaking at the WADA symposium at London`s Lord's Cricket Ground, said Monday. "If his report indicates transgressions of any kind, then there will be a precedent-setting opportunity to demonstrate our collective commitment to cleaning up sport," added the veteran British sports administrator, who reiterated WADA's support for the IAAF ban on Russia. "The world will be watching." Reedie said the fact anti-doping laboratories in Beijing, Bloemfontein, Lisbon, Madrid and Moscow had all had their WADA accreditation suspended was proof that the organisation had taken "decisive action" by hearing the "strength of the athlete's voice" in insisting labs maintain the "highest standards". This, said Reedie, was all part of "levelling the playing field for each and every athlete competing in Rio". Meanwhile Reedie repeated his calls for increased WADA funding from national governments and also suggested that, for the first time, broadcasters and media rights-holders might want to contribute to the budget. Reedie said WADA was "punching above its weight" on a budget of less than $30 million a year, which he noted was less than the annual income of Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova, recently banned for a doping violation. Reedie added that 0.5 per cent of the worldwide sports television rights market would produce a WADA budget of $175 million and that it was in the rights-holders' interest to promote clean sport. Russian President Vladmir Putin has labelled the IAAF's ban on his country's athletes as "unjust and unfair". But IAAF president Sebastian Coe, who won Olympic 1500 metres gold and 800m silver for Great Britain at the 1980 Moscow Games, wrote in Britain's Sunday Telegraph: "We have not prevented clean athletes from Russia from competing, rather the Russian system has cataclysmically failed their clean athletes." (AFP)

World Anti-Doping Agency prepared to ban entire Russian team from Rio Olympics

Russia`s sports minister said today that the country has carried out the anti-doping measures demanded by the world athletics governing body IAAF, adding that Russia was ready to help doping officers gain access to athletes. 
 
Minister Vitaly Mutko spoke after a damning new report by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said hundreds of Russian athletes had declined to be tested and the IAAF Council is set to meet on Friday to decide whether to lift the ban against Russian athletes. 
 
&quot;At the end of the day we have fulfilled all the criteria, everything that they demanded of us. All the athletes are under control,&quot; Mutko told Interfax news agency. 
 
He said he would read the new WADA report, issued on Wednesday, and write to its president Craig Reedie to tell him: &quot;If you need government help, inform us, don`t wait until the last minute.&quot; 
 
&quot;We will do everything possible for doping inspectors to visit any city, even a closed city,&quot; Mutko said, referring to Russian cities with controlled public access due to secret installations.&nbsp; 
 
&quot;Just make lists in advance and you will get passes, you will visit them.&quot; 
 
(AFP)

Country's sports minister speaks up after WADA report said hundreds of the country's athletes had refused to be tested

Russia`s sports minister said today that the country has carried out the anti-doping measures demanded by the world athletics governing body IAAF, adding that Russia was ready to help doping officers gain access to athletes. Minister Vitaly Mutko spoke after a damning new report by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said hundreds of Russian athletes had declined to be tested and the IAAF Council is set to meet on Friday to decide whether to lift the ban against Russian athletes. "At the end of the day we have fulfilled all the criteria, everything that they demanded of us. All the athletes are under control," Mutko told Interfax news agency. He said he would read the new WADA report, issued on Wednesday, and write to its president Craig Reedie to tell him: "If you need government help, inform us, don`t wait until the last minute." "We will do everything possible for doping inspectors to visit any city, even a closed city," Mutko said, referring to Russian cities with controlled public access due to secret installations. "Just make lists in advance and you will get passes, you will visit them." (AFP)

Russia has fulfilled all IAAF doping criteria, says Mutko

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WADA was not equipped to handle size of Russian doping scandal: Reedie

WADA to ask commercial sponsors for money in anti-doping fight

World Anti-Doping Agency prepared to ban entire Russian team from Rio Olympics

Russia has fulfilled all IAAF doping criteria, says Mutko