German Parliament to Address McLaren Report Fallout

(ATR) Christophe De Kepper is one of five confirmed experts to testify about the McLaren report to the German Parliament.

De Kepper’s attendance was confirmed to Around the Rings by the IOC and a spokesperson from the German Parliament’s Sports Committee. A similar hearing occurred in the United States last month, but was attended by IOC medical director Richard Budgett.

The hearing is titled "Consequences to be drawn from the McLaren Report," and will be held on April 26 at the German Parliament. The hearing is open to the public, although only invited experts and lawmakers will be allowed to speak.

Joining De Kepper in testifying are author of the McLaren report Dr. Richard McLaren, Benjamin Cohen, WADA European Regional Office and International Federations Relations Director, Andrea Gotzmann, chairwoman of the German Anti-Doping Agency, and journalist Hajo Seppelt.

Invitations have been extended to Vladimir Grinin, the Russian Ambassador to Germany, Alexander Zhukov, the President of the Russian Olympic Committee, and Yelena Isinbayeva, the chair of the board of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency, the spokesperson said to ATR.

Requests for comment about what the committee hopes to get out of the meeting were not returned.

De Kepper’s testimony in Berlin will come two months after he circulated a letter saying "it will clearly take some time" for the two IOC commissions to produce rulings during investigations of the McLaren report’s findings. Denis Oswald, head of the commission investigating doping manipulation at the Sochi 2014 Games, previously told ATR results may not come until "weeks" before PyeongChang 2018.

This will be the second high-profile inquiry into the world anti-doping landscape from a government this year, after the U.S. congress held an inquiry on Feb. 28. After the hearing, U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce investigations subcommittee chair Tim Murphy told ATR he believed that the testimony served its purpose to "facilitate and shine a bright light" on the current system and actors.

The three hour hearing in Washington D.C. got contentious at times as lawmakers pressed Dr. Budgett and WADA Director General Rob Koehler about shortcomings in the current system that allowed for a state sponsored doping system to happen in Russia. Budgett and Koehler spoke about ongoing reforms to produce an independent WADA, while Olympians Michael Phelps and Adam Nelson pleaded for more athlete input in the process.

Written by Aaron Bauer

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