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The Third World Conference on Doping in Sport kicked off in Madrid, Spain, on Thursday, beginning a three-day international meeting that will focus on revisions in the World Anti-Doping Code and signal the end of Dick Pound’s tenure as the sporting world’s top doping cop.
Nearly nine years after the first World Conference on Doping in Sports, in February of 1999, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has grown from a one-page document, issued largely as a panicked response to cycling’s Festina scandal, to a $25 million-a-year organization with authority over all Olympic sport and the legal and financial support of more than 200 countries.
Despite the growth, International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said that the battle against doping in sport has a long way to go.
“Doping is the one of the most serious threats the Olympic movement has ever seen. It undermines everything the Olympics stand for,” Rogge said in his opening address Thursday.
Still, progress has been made, Rogge continued, noting that WADA and the IOC have planned more than 4500 anti-doping tests at the Beijing Olympics next year, 25 percent more than were conducted at the Athens Games in 2004 and 90 percent more than the number conducted in Sydney in 2000.
“We remain committed to zero tolerance,” said Rogge.
It was cycling that prompted the IOC to call the first world conference on doping in 1999, and in that sense, little has changed. Discussion of cycling and the latest round of scandal continued to be a topic of discussion on Thursday.
Rogge alluded to a degree of frustration with the country hosting the conference; WADA and Olympic governing bodies have been stalled in efforts to sanction athletes named in Spain’s Operación Puerto investigation.
“We are keenly waiting for the Spanish judicial authorities to conclude the Puerto investigation and release the information to allow the appropriate agencies to hand down appropriate sanctions,” Rogge said.
For UCI president Pat McQuaid, the case has been especially exasperating. Since news of the Puerto investigation first reached the headlines in May of 2006, dozens of cyclists have been suspended or have opted to retire after their names were connected with the man at the center of the case, Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. But UCI officials have often been hamstrung in efforts to use much of the information they have because of ongoing criminal cases in Spain.
McQuaid said he’s hoping to force some action on cases, by holding a private meeting with Spanish sports minister Jaime Lissavetzky to discuss the sluggish progress in Puerto.
Asked if the meeting resulted in an agreement, McQuaid told VeloNews: “We’ll have to wait and see. It could be weeks or months before we see real progress.”
UCI anti-doping manager Anne Gripper declined to comment on individual cases in the files, but reaffirmed the organization’s “commitment to work with the Spanish federation on the Valverde and all of the other cases in the Puerto files and closure on all of those as soon as we can."
"Much of it depends on the support and cooperation of the Spanish (legal) authorities to bring the criminal cases to a close so that we can commence using those files to pursue sporting sanctions," she added.
“Certainly the situation in Spain is complicated and it has been frustrating for us, but I sense progress and we’re very committed to getting this whole matter resolved once and for all."
Gripper also said the agency is now weighing its options regarding the case of Michael Rasmussen, who recently admitted that he had lied regarding his whereabouts in the weeks leading to the Tour de France this year. Rasmussen was eventually fired by his Rabobank team when he appeared to be the all-but-certain winner of the Tour.
Who will follow Pound?
Entering his final year as WADA president, Pound’s successor was widely expected to be former French sports minister Jean Francois Lamour.
The presidency of WADA is supposed to rotate between the two main branches of its governance structure, the IOC and national governments. Lamour was the chosen candidate of the European Union countries and many assumed that endorsement alone would almost guarantee his election. But the process is intended to be more open than that, and several non-EU countries informally promoted the candidacy of an alternate, Australian John Fahey, the former premier of New South Wales.
“It’s supposed to be a democracy,” said U.S. Anti-Doping Agency chairman Travis Tygart. "I don't understand why it's a problem to have more than one candidate."
Remarkably, Lamour immediately backed out of the race to replace Pound, firing a stinging rebuke against the entire agency.
“I don’t want to be president of this agency,” Lamour said. “WADA is discredited by the way it handled Fahey's unexpected candidacy."
As the sole candidate for an election scheduled for Saturday, the last day of the WADA conference, Fahey is nonetheless not a lock to replace Pound. Two weeks ago, European sports ministers meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, declined to endorse the Australian’s candidacy, and several members were said to be actively recruiting candidates.
Leading the list of likely last-minute EU-supported candidates are Richard Carborn, the former British Minister for Sport and Tourism and Russia’s one-time head of the Russian Federal Agency for Physical Training and Sports, Vyacheslav Fetisov.
“I don’t care how many candidates there are,” Pound said. “The governments wanted to have an alternative and we said 'fine, but you come forward with one candidate.' We are not going to have cross-country skiers and international federation presidents choosing between (candidates supported by) France and Australia and whatever countries there may be. We said 'however you get there, you (the governments) decide and we (the IOC) will support your choice.'"
What next for Pound?
While Pound’s term as WADA president is winding to a close, he said he plans to stay involved in the IOC and, possibly, the fight against doping.
Pound said he’s interested in the soon-to-be-open spot as head of the International Court of Arbitration for Sport.
“I’m available,” said Pound, who is both an accountant and attorney. “Listen, it would be the first time in 30 years that the IOC has given me a job that I actually understand.”
Pound dismissed the possibility that the reputation he built at WADA over the past eight years would affect a possible role at CAS. Pound said his reputation as an advocate "is very well-suited for the position."
“That’s my job, to cause things to happen," he said. "If my job becomes to be a neutral decider, then that will be my job and I can do that. Most good judges were very successful lawyers before they became judges … to be a good lawyer you need to be a good advocate. The role of judge is different, but having been an advocate helps you as a judge.”
Pound said he has enjoyed his role as advocate for WADA and doping-control efforts. Most observers credit the Canadian attorney for moving quickly to assert the agency’s independence after its 1999 creation.
“You have to draw attention to the issue,” Pound told VeloNews. “Of course there are those small number of cases in which someone takes a supplement through error, but the vast majority of these cases are planned, deliberate attempts to cheat: well-organized, well-financed and have only one objective; that is, to say ‘I don’t give a shit what the rules are, I am going to do what I want.’”
Pound said despite what he views as a job he "very much enjoyed," he is looking forward to midnight, December 31, adding that when he pops the cork on a bottle of bubbly, he will be celebrating more than the end of the year.
“There may be some athletes out there doing the same,” Pound added with a smile.
