Jacques Rogge
BRUSSELS, Belgium – IOC president Jacques Rogge is warning Europe not to break away from the World Anti-Doping Agency following the withdrawal of former French sports minister Jean-Francois Lamour as a candidate for president of the body.
Rogge rejected Lamour’s call for creation of a European anti-doping agency.
"Basically, nothing should be created that is hostile to WADA, that is for sure," Rogge told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Wednesday.
Lamour resigned as a WADA vice-president Tuesday and pulled out of the running to succeed Dick Pound as president of the organization, leaving former Australian finance minister John Fahey as the only candidate for the Nov. 17 vote in Madrid.
Lamour called WADA discredited and ineffective, and urged the creation of a European agency that would be more "useful and effective." He said he already had some European support for the idea.
"If coordination between the governments of Europe is wished, it is not to us to decide whether it is wise or not," Rogge said. "But definitely there should be only one body, only one list (of banned substances) and one (anti-doping) code."
Rogge welcomed the latest draft of the new WADA code, which says some athletes caught using banned substances could face a four-year suspension in "aggravated" cases.
"The draft is OK," Rogge said. "The draft very much reflects what we have proposed in a working group together" with the International Association of Athletics Federations.
Lamour, a two-time Olympic fencing champion, once was considered the only serious candidate to succeed Pound but was caught off guard by Fahey’s last-minute candidacy.
The Council of Europe was disappointed by Lamour’s withdrawal.
"Mr. Lamour’s candidature was endorsed by the governments of the 47 member states of the Council of Europe, and he was therefore the official candidate of Europe as a whole," said Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, the council’s deputy secretary general.
"World sport is unfortunately not in very good shape, and we need a strong WADA with competent leadership to act decisively," she said.
Source: www.tsn.ca
