From Inside the Games
World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) President Sir Craig Reedie has claimed a letter sent by Russian authorities could help bring an end to the ongoing impasse between the organisation and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) after the suspension of the body was maintained here.
Sir Craig said following the Foundation Board meeting that the document was the “most encouraging” piece of correspondence they had received from Russia amid the country’s doping scandal.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) members and sports movement representatives had claimed the letter constituted an acceptance of the McLaren Report, one of the two remaining reinstatement criteria RUSADA has yet to fill along with allowing access to the Moscow Laboratory.
Sir Craig, himself an IOC member, did not endorse that view but claimed he was hopeful it would be “a game-changer” in the deadlock between WADA and Russia.
The letter, sent to the Executive Committee prior to their heated meeting yesterday, will be analysed by the Compliance Review Committee (CRC) at a meeting on June 14.
CRC chairman Jonathan Taylor promised the CRC would report back as promptly as possible.
The letter has raised the chances of RUSADA being declared compliant quicker than many accepted as Russian officials had previously insisted they would never accept the findings in the McLaren Report, which says that an institutional doping scheme was in operation at events including the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
The contents of the letter remain unknown but it was seemingly strong enough to spark IOC members and sports movement representatives to call for a provisional reinstatement of RUSADA, first declared non-compliant in November 2015, during the Executive Committee meeting.
