On Friday, the President of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Witold Banka threatened “consequences” for the signatories of the World Anti-Doping Code, which are all national Olympic committees and sports federations, for possible participation in the Friendship Games in Russia.
“Physiognomic analysis means something in our business,” said Dr. Watson of Vitaly Solomin to Sherlock Holmes of Vasily Livanov in the immortal Soviet film adaptation of Conan Doyle’s stories. And looking at the WADA president during Friday’s seven-hour meeting of the board of founders of this organization, one could not imagine that this person is one of those through whose hands the authorities in international sports are trying to subjugate Russia to their will. Young, progressive, friendly, with a playful smile on his lips, who knows how to joke appropriately. Who else should you be friends with if not such good-looking people?
But “something” is not “everything”. On Friday it became clear that one of the main goals of the WADA event was to fire a powerful new salvo of warnings and even threats over the idea of organizing the World Friendship Games in Russia. Which, as you know, are not positioned at all as a replacement for the Olympic Games or any other major competitions. However, of course, there will be comparisons between the Olympics and the Friendship Games. Comparisons and the search for the optimum are generally inherent in human nature. “The fish looks for something deeper, but a person looks for something better,” the saying was invented for a reason.
And the organizations that now establish order in world sports felt that comparisons might not be in their favor. The International Olympic Committee, through its president Thomas Bach, first indirectly condemned attempts to organize “politicized sporting events” – although what kind of politics is in the intention to organize a holiday where there will be no outcasts is unclear. And then the head of the IOC Department for Relations with National Olympic Committees, James McLeod, specifically called on all countries to ignore the Friendship Games.
At the same time, the IOC has not yet said that those who do accept Russia’s invitation to participate in these competitions will be punished. But Banka is already threatening this. “The possible participation of signatories of the WADA code in the Friendship Games may entail consequences,” the president of the World Anti-Doping Agency said meaningfully at a press conference following a meeting of the founding council. And this is a direct attack on us.
The management of WADA explains such a threat as follows: The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) remains deprived of its compliance status with the World Anti-Doping Code. And according to this document, a country with a national anti-doping organization without compliance status cannot organize major sporting events. But there is, as they say, a nuance.
And it consists in the following. What WADA is doing in relation to RUSADA can hardly be called anything other than sheer arbitrariness. Sanctions by the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) related to the case of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory ended almost a year ago – in December 2022. However, WADA is in no hurry to restore the full status of our anti-doping agency, despite the fact that it is functioning and there are no specific complaints about its operational activities. The organization has rolled out a three-stage plan for this restoration, according to which RUSADA is still in the first stage – WADA is assessing whether all criteria have been met.
Moreover, there are no specifics on their part. Although on Friday words were voiced about the need to conduct an in-person audit of RUSADA – and regret that in the current geopolitical conditions it is difficult to carry out it, there is still zero information about the essence of the claims. What they are, one can only guess.
But, as you know, among the various options, the correct one is most likely the most obvious. And the point is that now, when Russian sport is under enormous pressure, leaving RUSADA deprived of its compliance status for the IOC and WADA is one of the few ways to provide at least some legal basis for sanctions. For example, the recommendations of the IOC Executive Committee say that Russia cannot host international competitions. But that’s why these are recommendations, so that you don’t have to follow them. And the World Anti-Doping Code does state that the organizing committees of major events “must do everything possible to avoid holding them in countries where… the national anti-doping organization does not comply with the code.”
What should the Russian side do in this situation? That's right – take the blow and go to the end. And by deeds to prove that you are right. The political reasons for the sanctions against our sport are obvious, it seems, to absolutely everyone. The pressure only intensifies every month. And the threats of the IOC and WADA to those who agree to come to Russia for the Friendship Games will quite possibly soon become concrete. For example, in the form of the removal of the national Olympic committees of those countries whose athletes will participate in our competitions. We must be prepared for this – but in any case it will be a matter of honor to organize such Games so that the world understands: it is not we who are going to split, but they want to isolate us.
And, of course – here we can even agree with WADA’s concern about how doping control will be organized at the Friendship Games – it is necessary to think through the entire organization of competitions in this direction to the smallest detail. It is possible to study the experience of overseas professional leagues, which themselves organize anti-doping control, without paying attention to any WADA. This is a vivid example of the fact that the light did not fall like a wedge on this organization. But all the steps here must be clearly verified – and then they will lead us to the result that we are all waiting for.
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