JOINT STATEMENT FROM WADA AND THE U.S. OFFICE OF NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL POLICY

Yesterday, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) President, Witold Bańka, and the Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) in the United States (and an Americas public authority representative on WADA’s Foundation Board), the Honorable James W. Carroll, held a virtual meeting to discuss matters of interest to the two organizations with the goal of better working together for the good of athletes and the global anti-doping system.

In what was a very positive meeting, the two organizations agreed that the U.S. Government was vital for the protection of clean sport around the world, and that they would pursue strong and open bilateral communication going forward.

Mr. Banka and Mr. Carroll were united in the view that this was an important meeting, where WADA and the ONDCP were able to discuss a number of areas of mutual concern in an open and honest way. Mr. Carroll reaffirmed the U.S. Government’s commitment to work with WADA, from within WADA. They both agreed that the partnership between WADA and the U.S. Government was vitally important for the protection of clean sport around the world. As such, they committed to strengthening this partnership going forward and saw this meeting as an important step along a renewed path of dialogue and collaboration.

The main topics covered in the meeting included:

The ongoing reforms to WADA’s governance, including U.S. Government and athlete representation within WADA’s committee structures;

How the two organizations can work together to strengthen and harmonize the anti-doping system in the U.S.; and

The impact of COVID-19 on the global anti-doping system.

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