USOC Advocates for Truly Independent Doping Bodies

(ATR) The United States Olympic Committee says that an independent World Anti-Doping Agency cannot be served by representatives from sporting bodies.

The NOC released a position paper today advocating for the "greater authority, independence, and funding," of WADA. Yesterday, USOC chairman Larry Probst told reporters the body’s board of directors spoke with Travis Tygart and Edwin Moses at the United States Anti-Doping Agency about "the current anti-doping situation." Probst said the position paper was the result of those discussions.

"We wanted to make sure that position paper got out before the WADA reform meetings this Saturday," Scott Blackmun, USOC chief executive, told ATR after the conference call. "It was a discussion around independence, going down on the different levels of independence between the executive function and the governance function and the judicial discussion. "

On Mar. 10-11 a working group on WADA governance reform will be held in Lausanne a spokesperson confirmed to ATR. The 17 member working group is comprised of government figures, sport leaders, athletes, national anti-doping heads, and independent advisors. On March 13, WADA will host a day-long presentation for media in Lausanne.

"WADA should be governed independently of the sports organizations it watches and works with, and needs to have clear, transparent policies on governance," the USOC position paper read. "No person serving in a governance role in the IOC, any NOC, IF, or ANOC should also serve in a governance role for WADA."

The position is a departure from that of the IOC, which believes that an independent WADA must have minority representation from sport leaders. IOC Medical Director Richard Budgett told reporters after testifying before the U.S. Congress that having a minority representation would "[remove] any sort of conflict of interest, while maintaining a connection to sport."

At the same hearing, USADA president Travis Tygart spent the majority of his testimony urging WADA to remove all sport leaders from leadership positions in its reforms.

"Athletes around the world are being let down by sports controlled interests," Tygart told representatives.

The main point of the position paper is the USOC supports a "clearly independent anti-doping body with overriding global authority." The independent authority would have a defined role allowing the due process for athletes when a positive sample is found, but also allow for the sanctioning of "international federations, National Olympic Committees, national federations and National Anti-doping Organizations in cases of systematic doping."

To achieve this goal the USOC believes more funding is needed to help bolster the new anti-doping framework. "The IOC, the NOCs and the IFs should all contribute on a fair and equitable basis, complementing governmental support," the statement says.

Written by Aaron Bauer

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