Craig Reedie Elected WADA President -- On-the-Scene

(ATR) Craig Reedie is the new president of the World Anti-Doping Agency. He was elected unanimously by the WADA Foundation Board on Friday at the World Conference on Doping in Sport in Johannesburg, South Africa.

He will take office on January 1. He was the only nominee selected by the IOC, whose turn it was to select a WADA president. Reedie succeeds John Fahey of Australia, who was the nominee of government.

During his first press conference as WADA president, Reedie was quick to praise his predecessor and continued to do so throughout his comments.

Reedie says when he starts the job, he will be thrown into the mix of things and will not have one specific first job.

"I don’t think you can set any stone on the fact that there is a change at the top of an organization," Reedie said.

"What I know quite clearly is we have a new code; we have a response to that code. There is an overall challenge. We have a broad roadmap that covers the whole multitude of things. It’s a wide-ranging portfolio.

"I don’t think you can say I particularly wish to be involved in any particular aspect of that," he added

At the start of his remarks, Reedie outlined his athletic and administrative career noting, "To the best of my knowledge I never tested positive."

Reedie is an IOC vice president as well.

WADA Budget

The Foundation Board also approved WADA’s budget for 2014.

John Fahey said there is an increase of about one percent for next year. WADA’s budget for 2013 was $24.42 million.

He said under the new budget, Foundation Board and Executive Committee members would "effectively pay their own airfares" to get to meetings. The sports world will fund sport representatives to travel and governments will pay for government officials’ airfare.

Written by Ed Hula IIIin Johannesburg

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