September 22, 2018 – An avalanche of criticism has hit the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) following its controversial decision to reinstate the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA). First to sound the alarm was Beckie Scott, Canadian Olympic gold medalist, when she resigned from WADA’s Compliance Review Committee on Sept. 14.

Scott reacted to the committee’s recommendation to reinstate RUSADA and received widespread support. Following the news of reinstatement on Sept. 20, there was near unanimous criticism of WADA’s decision that saw nine members of its executive committee vote in favour of the recommendation, with two against and one abstention. Scott will stay on as the chair of WADA’s athlete committee.

RUSADA had been suspended since 2015 following investigations that revealed widespread doping in Russian sport. The scandal erupted following the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Reinstatement had long hinged on RUSADA accepting two conditions: That it must publicly accept the findings of the McLaren Investigation, which it has never accept as well as “provide access to samples and electronic data in the former Moscow laboratory, which are sealed off due to a federal investigation.”

Although WADA states that there is a clear road-map for RUSADA to meet these conditions, it appears that the first condition has evolved from accepting the McLaren Report to accepting the findings of the Schmid Commission, which endorsed the core elements of the McLaren Report including “widespread culture of doping in Russia” but did not find “any documented, independent and impartial evidence confirming the support or the knowledge of this system by the highest State authority.”

The McLaren Report indicated the Russian government itself for its role in what it called state-sponsored doping which is not as toughly worded in the current dialogue.

In the WADA statement, the Chair of the CRC, Jonathan Taylor QC, explained: “the letter from the Russian Ministry of Sport sent to WADA on 13 September 2018 amounts to an acceptance of all of the findings of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Schmid Report (which itself endorsed the core findings of the WADA-commissioned McLaren Investigation reports), including that “a number of individuals within the Ministry of Sport and its subordinated entities” were involved in the manipulations of the anti-doping system in Russia.”

The outpouring of criticism has come from countless athletes and top level institutions such as the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) which released a scathing response.

“Clean athletes around the world will be outraged by the WADA Executive Committee’s decision to reinstate Russia even though Russia refuses to comply with the last two conditions of the Russian Roadmap. Through secrecy and a complete lack of transparency, WADA has moved to alter the very Roadmap it created in order to appease Russia, the country that perpetuated the largest doping scandal in the history of sport,” the CCES statement read in part. “This decision-making process by WADA demonstrates serious governance issues that must be addressed if the Agency is to survive this crisis of confidence. Through its decision, WADA has told the athletes of the world that it couldn’t care less about their right to a level playing field.”

Jim Walden, lawyer for Russian whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov, called the WADA decision to reinstate Russia “the greatest treachery against clean athletes in Olympic history.”

Tricia Smith, President, Canadian Olympic Committee commented, “We are disappointed by the World Anti-Doping Agency’s announcement today and request that WADA provide the detailed rationale behind the decision and how this supports playing by the rules.”

Chief executive of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, Travis Tygart, claimed, “Today marked the biggest decision in the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)’s history, and it delivered a devastating blow to the world’s clean athletes. By ripping up the very ‘Roadmap’ it created, WADA’s decision to reinstate Russia despite the nation not having met the two remaining Roadmap conditions is bewildering and inexplicable. In its landmark meeting today, WADA sent one clear message to the world: we put the wishes of a small handful of sports administrators above the rights of millions of clean athletes and the dreams of billions of sports fans.”

Yet Dick Pound, former WADA president, supports the controversial decision saying it will help prosecute more Russian cheats. “WADA has effectively excused Russia from having to publicly admit its cheating was sanctioned by the government in return for the country finally giving up the evidence needed to proceed with hundreds of anti-doping cases. The issue of access to the (Moscow anti-doping) lab is the key and it had been dragging on for years while the Russians conducted this criminal investigation – well, that was their excuse,” Pound told Press Association Sport – read more here.

Read more in Reuters here.