WADA Global Conference Delayed Until 2019

(ATR) WADA president Craig Reedie says this year’s extraordinary assembly called by Olympic stakeholders won’t now take place due to the scale of global anti-doping reforms required.

At a press conference wrapping up day one of the WADA symposium in Lausanne, Reedie confirmed the postponement. It follows the developments in WADA’s reforms process and consultations with the Olympic Movement.

"We had to work out what people wanted us to do," Reedie said, adding that with governance changes "it was quite clear it would take much longer to deliver all of that."

The IOC president and the loose group of sports stakeholders who make up the Olympic Summit had demanded WADA hold a world conference in 2017 to debate and put in place measures to strengthen the worldwide anti-doping movement. Thomas Bach said last June he wanted the challenges facing WADA to be addressed in an "open and transparent way."

Reedie said Monday that there was an increasing understanding that to more time was needed to organize a conference for over 2,000 people, "particularly if there is a code revision."

"It’s not something you organize over a quiet weekend," he told reporters at the Swiss Tech Convention Center where the annual WADA symposium is taking place this week.

More than 184 signatories of the WADA code would need to be involved in any consultation about changes on new standards of compliance; the last consultation took almost two years. Reedie said it was "complex, time-consuming, expensive and ultimately successful."

There are now question marks about the IOC’s ambitious plan to have an independent anti-doping testing system up and running by the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics.

Reedie could give no concrete details about progress on the plans, putting in doubt Bach’s desire to have a system in place by next February.

The IOC Executive Board is meeting in PyeongChang this week.

Despite the urgency to resolve the issue of Russia’s participation at the 2018 Winter Games, neither Reedie or WADA director general Olivier Niggli are travelling to PyeongChang. Nor will they report to the IOC by video conference. Niggli toldAround the Rings there is no scheduled WADA report on the status of Russia’s doping reforms.

In Lausanne, the WADA chief felt that the anti-doping conference had "dealt with the elephant in the room [Russia] fully and clearly." Both WADA leaders spoke about Russia’s efforts to regain compliance with the code, while the agency’s top investigator Richard McLaren had updated the conference on his ongoing work probing the Russian doping scandal that blew up last year.

"We work every day with the authorities in Russia and RUSADA to try and produce a situation where Russia is compliant," he said.

Reedie praised Russian sports minister Pavel Kolobkov’s commitment to reforms. "I thought the minister was pretty helpful in many things that he said," said the British IOC member.

Kolobkov said earlier in the day he hoped Russia can gain "provisional compliance" in May with full reinstatement into the WADA family in November.

Reedie said that was likely not achievable.

"Sitting here and now I question whether we will be ready for May There is much to be done," said WADA's boss.

"We have to get the biggest country in the world compliant with the WADA code. Sport will be very well served by a compliant RUSADA," he added, urging Russia to be patient.

Reported by Mark Bissonin Lausanne

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