Investigative journalist Hajo Seppelt sees the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) after the recent revelations about blatant deficiencies in the storage of doping samples prior to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang under considerable pressure:”Now there has to be plan B for Olympia,”Seppelt said in a conversation with SID.
The high-tech bottles for the doping samples are produced by the Swiss company Berlinger. Seppelt was involved with the ARD doping editorial team, and after research, these allegedly safe containers can be opened without any problems.
“There is a market leader, this Swiss product from Berlinger. It appears that the dominant position has led to difficulties in finding alternatives. That’s the way I can imagine it,”said Seppelt.
According to Seppelt, it is unclear what Plan B can look like:”There is great helplessness. Perhaps they will conjure something out of the hat, so we are looking forward to it. The results of the most recent searches called Seppelt a “declaration of bankruptcy of the system”. This is “full of holes and actually unacceptable.”
The opening and reclosing of the bottles had worked “at the end very easily” and of course you have to think a little bit. We just wanted to know: Is something like Sochi repeatable? Now we have to say it’s repeatable. It may even have been repeated. This cannot be ruled out,”said Seppelt.