From Inside the Games

Public authority representatives within the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) are set to make their opposition to Sir Craig Reedie’s criticism of the National Anti-Doping Organisations (NADOs) clear after he opposed their calls for Russia to be banned from Pyeongchang 2018 during the body’s Executive Committee meeting in Paris this weekend.

insidethegames understands from a number of sources that considerable concerns will be raised during the meeting in the French capital tomorrow regarding the manner in which the demand from the NADOs last week was dismissed by the WADA President and director general Olivier Niggli.

In his report to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the Session in Lima, Sir Craig claimed the NADOs  were “unhelpful” for calling for a blanket ban on Russian athletes at the Winter Olympic Games.

He then promised to discuss the issue at the meeting in Paris.

The group of 17 NADOs, including the United States and Britain, were also criticised by several IOC members at the Session.

Since then, however, the number of NADOs supporting the view that the entire Russian team should be excluded from Pyeongchang 2018 has grown to 28.

Linda Helleland, the Norwegian Minister of Culture and the WADA vice-president, told insidethegames she had written an email to Sir Craig following his comments at the Session in Lima.

The Norwegian declined to reveal the exact content of the email but said she would raise it at the Executive Committee meeting.

She stopped short of supporting the NADOs’ stance but her response is likely to be critical of the comments of the WADA President and Niggli.

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