Kirsty Coventry Among Athletes Calling WADA To Take Action Against Doping

kirsty-coventry-
Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Just one day after The New York Times released their explosive story about Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, the former director of the national anti-doping laboratory in Moscow who oversaw systematic doping and the sabotage of drug testing in Russian athletes, many are now calling for Russia to be banned from the Rio Games altogether.

In addition to the call to ban Russia, many professional athletes are speaking up and urging committees such as the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Olympic Committ (IOC) to step up and be more aggressive in ensuring that all athletes are clean and participating on a level playing field.

Zimbabwe Olympic medalist Kirsty Coventry, who serves as an athlete representative for both WADA and the IOC, delivered some harsh words to Thursday’s WADA Foundation Board meeting through Paralympic sledge hockey champion Todd Nicholson. In her statement she proclaimed,

I have no confidence that I will be competing on a level playing field in Rio. We [WADA] market and portray ourselves as te ‘Organization for Clean Sport’ and ‘Protecting Clean Athletes’ but we are not….We either need to get full autonomy and independence to take actions, or we need to stop marketing ourselves as the organization that will get things done. 

But Coventry isn’t the only athlete (or swimmer!) speaking up. Along with her message for WADA were messages from several U.S. Olympic swimmers, including Cammile Adams, Jimmy Feigen, and Anthony Ervin. 

Adams, a butterfly specialist, expressed that she “personnally feel[s] that WADA has let down every clean athlete in sport.”

Feigen, a 400 freestyle relay silver medalist, added, “I have continued to place a lot of hope in the many opportunities for WADA to step in and clean up the system. Time and time again I have been disappointed.”

Rounding out Coventry’s echoing chorus was Ervin, a well-known sprinter and gold medalist from the 2000 Sydney Games, who noted,

As athletes we open ourselves to the invasion of our bodies for the sake of a cleaner sport; yet all these invasions serve only as a route to despair when one after another, athletes, in particular star athletes, are created and protected by their State.

The decision to exclude Russia from the Olympic Games ultimately lies with the IOC and many feel that the credibility of the anti-doping establishment will start to crumble if Russia is allowed to compete.

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Stephen Marcus
7 years ago

She swims for Zimbabwe which is not the same country as South Africa…but still a great ambassador for African swimming.

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