“Match TV Uncovers Evidence of WADA Double Standards”
Titled “The Doping Trap, Part 2”, a documentary by Russian sports broadcaster Match TV aired on Sunday at prime time across Russia, insists having uncovered evidence of how athletes from different countries fall prey to double standards that plague the anti-doping regulatory and enforcement communities. Just for “The Record”, sport intern reprints the press release, circulated by Match TV.
“The evidence was collected when covering mass disqualification and a ban for Russian athletes to participate in Rio Summer Olympics 2016, which start this week. The documentary taps prominent U.S. journalists and analysts to review mounting evidence that athletes are routinely profiled based on their international standings and national team affiliations for extremely prejudiced doping probes. Journalists discovered that some countries abuse the system to disqualify foreign competitors who have high chances of beating athletes from their own countries. The Doping Trap, Part 2, found that the U.S. is the worst offender, having entire sports leagues not tested for doping, and having U.S. anti-doping labs testing American athletes with an expressed ban for foreign observers to verify the results, a clear conflict of interest.
“The Doping Trap, part 2, details the mechanics of how national sports federations abuse anti-doping system’s vulnerabilities with an expressed goal of eliminating stong competitors from other countries,» said Kirill Kiknadze, a sports journalist and the documentary’s chief creator. «The film also answers the cui bono question, illustrating in detail who stands to benefit from ejecting specifically Russian athletes from Rio Olympics.»
“The Doping Trap, Part. 2, quotes prominent U.S. journalists and experts on how non-transparent are the U.S. anti-doping labs. With John Drummond, a U.S. Olympic medalist, as an example, the documentary makes a point that even total bans from sport on the grounds of doping can be easily lifted should an athlete make a deal with anti-doping regultors. Drummond, twice busted for doping, is going to Rio as part of the U.S. Olympic squad. The documentary also details how entire U.S. sports are free of doping tests and controls.
“International athletes no longer trust WADA. This point is emphasied by Don Catlin, billed by U.S. National Olympic Committee as the ‘sportsman of the year’: ‘Whatever [WADA says] goes – there is no oversight. There should be a review or make a whole new agency which I take is the best thing.’ He is seconded by Michele Verroken, ex-director of the U.K. anti-doping committee and the founder of Sporting Integrity consultancy: “The credibility of the whole system is undermined and people do not understand now how they can trust data again. On the other hand, this data is used to admit athletes to the Olympics. The antidoping world has fallen on hard times.”
“The Doping Trap, Part 2, offers solutions to restore credibility to international anti-doping move-ment.The documentary can be watched (with English subtitles) at: https://youtu.be/AQZqV6nMgqc”
This story first appeared in the blog, The Sport Intern. The editor is Karl-Heinz Huba of Lorsch, Germany. He can be reached at ISMG@aol.com. The article is reprinted here with permission of Huba.