In dramatic words, Vice President Linda Helleland of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has raised the alarm against several Russian athletes after the lifting of lifelong doping bans.
“The situation is chaotic and unsustainable and can no longer be accepted,” said Norway’s Youth and Equality Minister in a letter to the industry service insidethegames. com:”Clean athletes and sports fans around the world have lost confidence, and the various associations are in danger of losing all credibility.
According to the judgment of the International Court of Justice for Sport CAS in favor of the Russians, who were originally banned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in the state doping scandal, Helleland sees a red line for dealing with the doping problem as having been broken “Words alone do not clean the sport. It’s time to get up and say this has to stop. It’s time to act.”
According to the former sports minister of her country, the financial resources of WADA member states are at stake in the fight against doping:”Without credibility, governments around the world will begin to ask what their money is being spent on. Governments must be able to believe in the anti-doping system, a system of transparency and integrity”.
Helleland also hinted at the initiation of an independent investigation of the processes in the “Causa Russia”. The top WADA functionary did not provide any further details on her plans.
“Since the publication of the McLaren report on systematic doping in Russia, I have been following the various decisions and their consequences with great concern,”said Helleland, commenting on her motivation to tackle the decision-making chain in the state doping scandal.