CAS ICAS elects new president: G'day Mate!

Welcome back to WADAwatch... just one voice discussing the international regulatory agencies whose livelihoods derive from the valiant and strident efforts to reduce and / or eliminate the scurge of doping in Sport.


Our hiatus served to refresh the enthusiasm that has always been a bedrock of the WADAwatch credo. As readers can imagine (those whose memories exceed the average American's short span), the hiatus also has spanned this summer of 2010, which began with Floyd Landis' assortment of confessions, and comes towards winter with Jeff Novitzky entertaining zealous prosecutors from at least Italy, Belgium and France at Interpol HQ in Lyon, France.


Yet our opening 'Fall 2010' blog-post is to reflect on the new changes at CAS/ICAS, which announced last week the election of a new president: John Coates AC of Australia. WADAwatch hesitates to point out the obvious... yet it must be so. Did anyone know that Mr Coates was opposed by Dick Pound, former president of WADA, who ran his second campaign much farther below the radar-screen than his first attempt?
(photo credit 'sort of' to 'Moderately Left', an Australian political blog)


WADA is currently headed by an Australian: the Honourable John Fahey, a former Australian government minister. Now ICAS (the International Council of Arbitration for Sport) has elected its very own Australian to lead the Council that oversees CAS' operations.


Some WADAwatch followers remember our vehement outcry against the candidature of Dick Pound for that very post as ICAS President, when he first ran, loudly and boisterously, and lost: Mario Auletta became the new CAS President in April 2008:


Pound LOSES CAS presidency


Our fear of a Pound presidency was based on his public statements regarding CAS getting 'lost' in a sea of arbitration panels, as well as his rumoured involvement in the events (nebulous, ambiguous) surrounding the 2005 Lance Armstrong 'EPO case' promoted via the French newspaper L'Equipe. Auletta's election, and statuatory changes that were effected under his leadership (the 'conflict of interests' were eliminated: see "WADA" rule from CAS & ICAS...) have helped assure the Athletes whose cases come to this august body would, henceforth, suffer less from the 'revolving door' of Advocates who wore two hats, as Arbitrators or Advocates for either Athletes and International Federations.


Now who is John Coates?


The Olympic Movement, which states so often and so publicly how much it wants Sportsmen and Sportswomen to be 'healthy and pure', seems to have an incestuous (strong word?) reliance on internalizing campaigns to its prominent roles... First there was Dick Pound, who valiantly defended Ben Johnson before spearheading the investigation regarding the Salt Lake City Olympics bidding process. Pound then became the 'White Knight' who headed the movement that became the World Anti-Doping Agency.


And where was John Dowling Coates, while Pound was investigating Salt Lake's bidding shenanigans? According to the Wikipedia, Coates "played a key role in bringing the 2000 Olympics to Australia and in its delivery". Yet this story overlaps with Dick Pound's investigation of the Salt Lake City bid scandal, and wiki tells us that:

In January 1999 John Coates released documents revealing that he, and other officials, had been involved in extensive vote buying in 1993 to secure the Olympic Games for Sydney. He admitted that the night before Sydney won the 2000 Games, he offered more than $A50,000 each to the national Olympic committees of Kenya and Uganda and provided their delegates with expensive hotel accommodation in London and other gifts. Coates also organised a place for the daughter of the Swaziland IOC delegate at a Sydney tertiary education facility. African IOC delegates were also promised that sports training would be provided for African athletes at the Australian Institute for Sport in Canberra, if Sydney won.

Now humanity is known for errors, retributions and forgiveness (unless you're an Athlete who doped), and WADAwatch is not judging Mr Coates for admitting to zealousness in a system (then) which rewarded such behaviours.


We are, at WADAwatch, simply back to observe what happens to Athletes around the globe, who are bound to a system which affords ZERO tolerance, generally. And we are still (as an independent writer) bound to recall the immortal words expressed in the Quigley case:

The fight against doping is arduous, and it may require strict rules. But the rule-makers and the rule-appliers must begin by being strict with themselves. Regulations that may affect the careers of dedicated athletes must be predictable. They must emanate from duly authorized bodies. They must be adopted in constitutionally proper ways. They should not be the product of an obscure process of accretion. Athletes and officials should not be confronted with a thicket of mutually qualifying or even contradictory rules that can be understood only on the basis of the de facto practice over the course of many years of a small group of insiders.

(CAS 94/129, USA Shooting & Q./International Shooting Union (UIT), award of 23 May 1995, CAS Digest I, pp.197-198)

John Dowling Coates takes the reins of power at ICAS in January 2011. He is stepping up from Vice President to assure fairness and tranquillity in the halls of arbitration of Sport. He vanquished Dick Pound, from an undisclosed number of votes.


He will be able to continue policies that were promulgated under Mino Auletta, and perhaps one of his first tasks will be to voice an opinion on Jeff Novitzky's FDA investigation of Lance Armstrong. Much to unravel, as facts replace hyperbole and judicial opinions outweigh the Court of Public Opinion.


"Welcome aboard, Admiral Coates"... good luck .

.........@............WADAwatch
copyright 2010 Ww

Where have all the WADAwatchers gone?

Hello WADAwatchers...

We missed you also!


In the high country of Colorado, as the spring suns melt the winter snowpack, it recently dawned on our Editorial Panel (of one) that very little 'insidious' information is coming out of the world regime for anti-doping in sport...


Has 'WADAworld' gone over the top, into a high and lofty plateau founded on good judgement, rightful pursuit of a balanced system, and (perhaps?) even Laboratory Disciplinary Rules (which we first found mentioned, and wrote about in our post...


Wednesday, 12 August 2009

WADA true story in Black and White...

Wherein we wrote:

Director General Howman offered this comment to the ExCom on that item:

... in relation to the disciplinary committee for laboratories mentioned at the September meeting. There had been a request for WADA to prepare the rules for such a body. The management had done that, and a paper had been tabled, detailing the process to be followed in relation to this specific committee. It was working pursuant to the ISL, and was not a matter requiring formal Executive Committee approval [.....] This was to deal with situations whereby accredited laboratories were not performing properly and were therefore subject to potential or partial suspension and, rather than leave this responsibility to the Laboratory Committee, which comprised experts, he felt that there should be a proper process. Secondly, he had wanted make sure that everything was established in a proper legal fashion.

Yet WADAwatch returns to this issue, especially to the concept that the institution of a 'laboratory disciplinary committee' (by whatever name) "was not a matter requiring formal Executive Committee approval" (!!??).


WADAwatch apologizes for a somewhat lax approach to keeping our faithful band of readers informed throughout these last few months, as life's necessities got in the way of constant updates and data-mining... We hope to make up the slack in this 'off-season' in the Rockies!


Such as missing the publications of the May and September, 2009, 'Minutes of the Executive Committee' (May's report is here, and that of September)!

Quel horreur!

Interesting facts are gleaned out of these two pre-Cataclysm reports ('cataclysm' being the rift induced by a seemingly-demented attempt by the French Agency AFLD's Director to stain the reputation of the most prolific anti-doping IF (UCI), in last October's reports regarding 'accusations' by the AFLD, and the countering Report by the UCI, which we summarized in gentle video fashion (and shows up better on YouTube) at this post).


As to the two 2009 ExCom Reports, let's highlight some fascinating factoids, and assure you of follow-up coverage,


... after a word from our sponsor!

Have you already purchased
your souvenir WADAwatch schwag
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An interesting array of products have been designed to show your support for the only (we think) English-language blog that is concerned with the international regulatory aspects of the anti-doping problem.


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Which holds, we must remind you, other libations than Beer! Note that the logo-caption ("100pc Pure") is also available across a range of products in Black; such as the T-Shirt, long-sleeve, that you can order here, or the Black, hooded long-sleeve sweatshirt, pictured below (click on photos to display page (use 'in a new tab' for best results!).




Thank you for shopping at WADAwatch! We now resume to a brief analysis of the two 2009 WADA ExCom Reports, whose links are posted above.


Good news, for cities that want to sponsor future Olympics; the May report showed that, to date, 112 UNESCO States had ratified the International Convention against Doping in Sport (link in our right column, and here), and by September that number had risen to 124 (D-G. David Howman expressed that that number represented "nearly 90pc" of the world's population).


As we had pointed out in our previous look at the ExCom report of 2008, it was a concern of the organization that Russia posed considerable problems, in that Testing teams or DCOs had faced 'many incidents', which were not elaborated but one could 'surmise' involved the ADOs or DCOs being 'inhibited' when approaching certain National Federations' Athletes... Can WADA find a means to support the non-violent (we offer a hypothetical) collection of Russian Athletes' Samples?


IT may come as no surprise to many readers, but we missed the implementation of the 'so-called' laboratory disciplinary rules', which is discussed in this Report under heading 6.3 "Report on Disciplinary Procedure for Laboratories" (which do not seem to appear as a searchable item at the WADA-AMA site). To the point, two labs have already been found 'non-conforming' (our Ww term) and suspended: they are Malaysia and Turkey; both labs were hoped to be back and eligible for reinstatement 'at the end of the (unknown?) suspension period' (see p. 17/30 of this document).


Chers amis d'AMA, dear friends at WADA; cannot these Rules or Procedures be transparently available through your website?


Cannot the procedures, evidence and hearings against such labs be transparent? Are Athletes' cases affected by the suspension of laboratories? We *Do Not Know*...


It was also noted, in this May 2009 report, that Compliance was again deferred, to a first official reporting in 2011. Coupled with that, was an outline of new CODE reforms to be undertaken in 2012, with a next World Conference to be held in 2013, and that that reformed CODE would be in force in 2015. Nevertheless, an official of WADA did report on the 2003 CODE implementation (by noting that ExCom members could consider this Report as 'complete', amongst the discussion points), and offered an interim assessment of the 2009 CODE.


So the four-year period that existed from inception of the original CODE in 2003, to its revision in 2007 (the Madrid Conference), and implementation in 2009, seems to have been drawn out to a six-year interval, with a shorter period for review and comments. Heads up! To all you IFs, and NADOs, who are interested by the subject of international anti-doping reform and revision...


On a positive (Ww hopes) note, two new labs were in a 'probationary phase', from Kazakhstan and Romania. If these facilities gained membership, it would boost the number of existing facilities from 34 to 36 (Ww presumes the suspended labs in Turkey and Malaysia are still counted as 'lab facilities' for this count).


Turning to the September ExCom Report, we find some interesting news:

• WADA was seeking to liaise with Interpol, which requires national legislation on the trafficking and distribution of doping substances (for which a survey of national legislations is a prerequisite);
  

• A 'Thought Leadership' seminar in Oslo, in June was a success, according to D-G Howman, as two aspects came out of their discussions: compliance and monitoring of practice and rules implementation, as well as pursuing the goal of 'quality rather than quantity'. (WADAwatch will return to this important announcement in a future post);

• It was announced, for purposes of Blood Passport and laboratory analysis, that Samples had to get to a lab for analysis "within 36 hours, and ... that such measures were impossible in some parts of the world". This meant that some analyses may have to be performed at facilities NOT accredited by WADA (thus not of the 34);

• Bribery in Austria was an issue! An Athlete's Agent was allegedly involved in an attempt, and apparently succeeded in accessing Samples in a lab facility, although this was not elaborated;
  

• Dr Alan Garnier of France, a man whose implications in the WADA/Equipe/Lance Armstrong 'affaire' were never fully vetted, or disproved, and whose obvious loyalties to comrades and compatriots within the French Lab and AFLD Agency were much more than 'circumstantial', was 'no longer WADA's Medical Director'.
  

Sacré bleu, one thinks: after the human errors of Pierre Bordry at the AFLD, creating an embarrassment for La France and the Sarkozy government, after the human tragedy of the loss of Prof. Jacques de Ceaurriz, whose professional life ended at age 60 from a heart 'incident', and the loss of Jean-Pierre Lamour to the Honourable John Fahey as WADA's president in 2007, we now consider the 'changing of the Guard' at the helm of WADA's Medical division?


He's replaced by Alan Vernec, who was the 'official doctor for the Canadian track team in Sydney', and as WADA puts it:

Dr Vernec joined WADA in October 2009, as the Agency’s Medical Director. A graduate of the University of California, San Diego (Bioengineering) and McGill University, Montreal (Medicine), Dr Vernec has worked extensively in clinical sport medicine and has taught at both l’Université de Montréal and McGill University in Montreal (Canada). Having extensive experience with elite-level sport, he has worked as team physician for several professional and national sport teams, at many international competitions, as well as served as physician for Team Canada at three Olympic Games. For the past 16 years, Dr Vernec has also served as Director of Athletics Canada.

Thus we end this 'Welcome Back' WADAwatch posting, with a hope that the world continues to ascribe to the Fundamental Rationale that WADA portrays in its 2009 CODE... and that Dr Vernec appreciates the quality now sought over quantity, as discussed in Oslo last June 2009.


Additionally, we hope to create more frequent posts, now that we are not shepherding li'l skiers into a better, snow-loving future, as a ski Instructor for one of Colorado's most prestigious Ski Schools.


Remember! There's No Schwag like WADAwatch Schwag! Buy yours today!

..........@............WADAwatch

copyright 2010 Ww

Gripper goes South, Rossi crosses the Alps

News from the Union Cycliste Internationale acquiring a new head of the Anti-Doping Service has surfaced, with the announced appointment of Francesca Rossi, of Italy, to replace Anne Gripper.


Ms Gripper, who joined the UCI in October 2006 with the title of Manager of the UCI Anti-Doping Service, returns to Australia for personal reasons, having overseen the various high- and low-points that rocked the cycling world since her appointment. WADAwatch honours her work efforts. A two-week old article with her comes to you, also from Cyclingnews.


Read more about Ms Francesca Rossi at an interesting interview provided by Cyclingnews. Her background with the IAAF is highlighted, and it is very pertinent to note that the IAAF holds the UCI's anti-doping efforts in high regard.


Ms Rossi served on the WADA 'laboratory committee', according to the article; its true title is the Laboratory Expert Group. WADAwatch hopes that Ms Rossi, as she gets up to speed, can help boost the organization's capabilities and competences for the standardization and advancement of laboratory practice, and precision.


Another short update from the snowy, sunny heights of Colorado. Enjoying this final week of winter,

..........@............WADAwatch

copyright 2010 Ww

AFLD: "Agence Francaise' Last Days"

Times are tough

... and the notion of attending to the foibles of the anti-doping world take some funny twists sometimes. Yet a recent (within the hour) search of information regarding the Tour de France 2010, came across this stunning article, by Cyclingnews:

Huge funding cuts threaten future of AFLD

According to the article, "the French government recently announced that it cancelled its plans to increase taxes on television rights in sports, which would have supplied the agency with 4 million Euro of its budget." Currently budgeted (according to the author) at Euro 8.7 million, the AFLD and its Directeur, Pierre Bordry, are facing budget cuts that threaten its very existence.

Could this be due to the fiasco between it and the UCI, as reported by WADAwatch and other media last fall? Could it be due to its six-month report for Q1 and Q2 2009, which revealed a huge amount of 'cannaboid' use amongst French athletes?

CONTROLS UNDERTAKEN BY THE AFLD
DURING THE FIRST SEMESTER 2009

(Report in FR)


How powerful (need one ask?) are the French Football (soccer) leagues and teams, as well as the networks that carry their games? Let Cyclingnews tell us:

Because there is no guarantee that the AFLD will still obtain the promised finance, Bordry questioned his government's willingness to continue an independent fight against doping in sports. When the government announced its plans to increase TV rights taxes, senior officials of French soccer declared that it wasn't up to them to finance the fight against doping in France.

No mention of French Rugby (nearly as widely broadcast as French football); nor the lesser TV sports like basketball, handball, equestrian and NOT Alpine skiing, which went off French TV many years ago.

More questions arise, and this brief post may require intense follow-ups in the near future.

..........@............WADAwatch

copyright 2010 Ww

Floyd? What's next: Isle of Saint Helena?

Zee Frenchies sont very mad, évidemment... After the years of litigation, Floyd Landis is now 'under mandate of arrest' for the super-duper mysterious 'hacking case' that began in November, 2006, when AFLD Directeur Pierre Bordry had more influence in his small world.

By zee way... Saint Helena was the English-controlled Island to which Napoléon was banished, for the Last six years of his life

Things have not fared well, recently, for Monsieur Bordry; most recently he had (by circumstantial evidence) been roundly (or severely?) chastised for his 'biased accusations' (which appear now to be mostly unfounded) against the UCI, in claiming favouritism over Lance and the Team Astana.


Yet what you want to know now, is what charges Floyd faces, and based on what proof?




Let WADAwatch take you back to the summer of 2009, and our two (no - Three!) articles about this sordid affair. Their pertinence is one-hundred percent pure...


Remember! The 'paid hackers' were a French firm (now bankrupt) whose staff and contacts/agents were former French Secret Service operatives (????), whose other clients were MASSIVE French entities, and whose work efforts infiltrated lawyers or activists whose own efforts were in seeking to expose 'nasty French corporate or Government secrets'... and is not Loyalty one of the 'qualities' of the French culture?


One dark and foggy November night... read:

Friday, 5 June 2009

Le Pierre Ironie: on French Hacking case v Baker

INTERPOL FLASH ALERT:

Wanted: on international arrest warrants issuing from France, two dangerous hacking financiers;

Crime: allegedly funded computer hacking/theft of authentic, sub–quality laboratory documents that proved French anti-doping incompet... *some text missing* ... or Alive.

[....]
One might think that Bordry has become addicted to 'news–makers syndrome', à la Dick Pound, former WADA president and the veritable 'Mouth that never stopped'. Hearing Pierre Bordry and the names 'Lance...' or 'Floyd...' is liking hearing GW Bush saying 'Axis of Evil'... empty of meaning, truth very very questionable.

Actually, this recent 'Bordry news Flash' is twice very old news, centering on the claimed computer–hacking by 'someone' of the LNDD laboratory's computer system in 2006; a case which, of itself, took a two and a half–year submarine tour of the French legal 'instruction' system. However, as 'evidence' in Landis' original 'case', it was never mentioned by USADA and Richard Young, for reasons that can only be due to... the negative weight of these allegations?

[.....]
Did AFLD 'control' their data systems to a degree of professional security reasonable for their industry as demands the WADA ISL, and which is recognized as sufficient within its professional community? (if it's facing a hacking case, to prove it was not 'negligent' or 'insufficiently protected', AFLD /LNDD must offer evidence of its (their) control systems in place, and prove that the 'Hacking' from Kargus (who was paid only Euro 2,000) was of "an unexpectedly–sophisticated capability" to win)

Read more from our first article in this three-part series.

+ + + + + + + + +

Only three days later we made further information available, from an intense Internet search of French sites and much reflection:

Monday, 8 June 2009

Holes in the AFLD-zone...

This is a “thinking out loud” post, continuing a focus on the French Anti–doping Galaxy's apparent obsession with Floyd Landis. From a weekend of reflection, several salient points rebounded time and again. These are:


1 how (not to forget one big -IF-) did Baker first contact Kargus?

How easily could a Doctor in San Diego 'infiltrate' the French corporate–espionage culture, to find a well–situated 'partner in crime' such as Kargus consultants? Admittedly such could be done with a 'couple of phone calls', but it seems incredible that Baker would do this after Floyd's A Sample results were announced. What if Floyd (and thus Baker) didn't know the number (995474) before Kargus had infiltrated (with instructions from 'client' to seek documentation under the number?) we know that Judge Cassuto requested the 'date from which Landis had access to his Sample(s) 'control number'?

[.....]

6 Lastly, was Landis/Baker 'the client', or a silent 'third–party beneficiary'?

As touched upon in item #2, the alleged 'Anglo–saxon client' could have been someone that was willing to do anything that might help Floyd, without having a direct tie to Team Landis. As you may be a 'beneficiary' of your parents' life insurance policy, a contract can benefit an unnamed 'third party'. Anyone so inclined as to provide Landis with 'help' from outlaw–shenanigans, and set up the means to do so, ought to be smart enough to receive Kargus' discovered E–files and send them on a CD to Baker, so as to eliminate any network–traces. The only link between Baker and the hacked files is known through his having sent these outward after receiving them.

Read the full (long, dry and detailed) second of three WADAwatch post here

+ + + + + + + + +

Our third essay attempted to provide the English audience with even more detail on the 'French Société' that was at the core of this French hacking case:

Thursday, 11 June 2009

Surveying les French surveillance societés...

It is an interesting company: Kargus Consultants, the company that constructed the hacking transaction into the French laboratoire LNDD. A company offering industrial surveillance, according to Societe.com, Kargus Consultants was founded on November 14, 2003: it has been out of business since October 22, 2007, only two weeks short of its fourth 'birthday'. Paying the price of its success?

Kargus Consultants indubitably provided the sole alleged 'hacker' – Alain Quiros – offering an info–tech commando squad that has made news for three prominent French 'hacking cases': the LNDD–'Landis' affair, the EDF–Greenpeace case, and one involving an activist French attorney (counsel to a French association of small–shareholders), not in that order. The French magazine Médiapart published a detailed article [Ww: controlled access], which was re–posted on the website/forum linuxquimper.org.

[....]
Mediapart does not expand their inflection regarding EDF and Greenpeace, and how the revelations of the LNDD affair brought forth that EDF/Greenpeace process. Intriguing, tantalizing, and yet unfulfilling, as to the interrelationships regarding the three French targets. Using the word 'anonymous' as to the emails described above, seems contradictory to the claims of Baker's involvement, which are discussed throughout the article.

That was the third of three biting probing posts brought to you last summer, by WADAwatch.

Is Plucky Pierre Bordry charting his course of revenge from last fall's UCI/Astana 'J'Accuse!' debacle? Is the French gouvernement a neutral forum, a witting or unwitting player in the latest chapter of:

The Case that Wouldn't DIE?

In the L'Equipe article that appeared yesterday, it is VERY notable to record that the French sporting journal discusses (Translation service: Ww) "Baker and his accomplices".

They do not state that those 'accomplices' were French, were arrested in other affairs, were former French 'secret agents' and were 'very very close' to the French gouvernement.

Why would L'Equipe...

(we remind readers that we boycott linking to L'Equipe... you can find this article (if you read or translate from FR) at L'Express)

... not want it's readers to know the full truth? They should: they're the taxpayers that are paying both AFLD, and the Nanterre Court Judge Cassuto (a bio of him is in the first cited Ww post above...), to either expose or deceive about the involvement of the French former secret agents in this case.

What conclusion to this new-for-2010 state of French affaires?


More French publicity for Bordry, stoking the world Media Machine while all the world is focussing on Vancouver? At least, in this case, everything stated by Bordry is going to be 'On the Record', in court, and appealable to a Fair body without conflicts-of-interest.


Our opinion remains the same: there are more 'elements' in this case pointing to a Watergate-style inside operation, designed to 'add on to' the 'facts' against Landis, 'just in case' their 'Testosterone evidence' was not 'sufficient'.


That's the 'official WADAwatch' theory, at least... and there's certainly more to come

..........@............WADAwatch

copyright 2009 Ww

VANCOUVER: "Dopening Ceremonies"...

A new Angel from Georgia

No one can smile on this Opening Olympic day that began, early and cloudy, with the violent death of a bright Georgian star, Nodar Kumaritashvili:

CREDIT: Peter Parks, Getty Images

Words cannot express the family's, the colleagues', the World of Sport's sadness: he shouldn't have gone that way. Yet a dangerous sport (when things go wrong) is compounded by the indecisiveness of a (our regulatory opinion) track or Federation management that does not understand physics, dynamic G forces, and geometry.


But for a couple thousand CAD of reinforced nylon barrier tarpaulins, designed to absorb and redirect the free-falling body back into the hard icy cocoon that consittutes his track 'universe', this young man would be alive, bruised and discussing his next run.


Announcements of a investigation can not ignore that exposure (similarly when Swiss skier Silvano Beltrametti hit the mid-finish line (later banned) vertical pylon several years ago, he was paralyzed for life...) to a non-secure, impressive steel structure (surely it will be protected tomorrow: isn't that the way?)... and although no express rules discuss the utility of a safety harness (would the weight of his sled kept him away from Death's Out-Post?), the organizers are going to have to satisfy the second paragraph of the FIL-Luge Rules, Article 3.5:

3.5 Safety regulations

The track layout and components such as curves, walls, bridges, tunnels, transportation set-ups, etc. as well as all facilitities originally belonging to the track must be provided in such a way, that they meet the internationally recognized safety standards.

If the safety regulations on a track are neglected so that the participants in FIL competitions are exposed to a typical danger to their health, the track may only be released by the technical delegate for further use if these deficiencies are removed.

If the steps taken are not sufficient in order to guarantee that the internationally recognized safety standards are followed during a competition, the jury, in accordance with the technical delegates is empowered to shorten the track.

As of midnight, indications are that the luge competition will go on tomorrow. This seems distressing, even to a casual admirer of the sport: what about the other lugers? What about their families? Addressing that situation will transpire away from WADAwatch: we turn to the news of the opening day.


CBS News tells us that "Thirty Athletes Out of Olympics for Doping". The article expresses an interesting thought:

[WADA President John] Fahey confirmed Thursday that more than 30 athletes had been excluded for breaking anti-doping rules over recent months and that the cases include a mixture of positive samples and failure to comply with testing protocols. He refused to give details of the athletes, sports or nationalities but noted that more than 70 athletes were prevented from competing at the Beijing Olympics for violating anti-doping rules in the similar period leading into the 2008 Summer Games.

Now don't take this personally, President Fahey, but obviously there are no cyclists in this group. If any one of those thirty were cyclists, some paper in Europe (whose name escapes us at the moment) surely would have allowed for heady headlines, juicy exposures of suspicions, hunches and insinnuendo.


Noted were the comment made by Fahey, that more than 70 in Beijing had been 'tagged' and withheld from competitions prior to the 2008 Summer Games. Russian athletes "will be under tight scrutiny" after six had been suspended in the last 12 months or so.


Another unique factor: Scott Burns, former Bush Administration Deputy White House 'drug czar' will be leading an international observer commission, that will "for the first time, have the ability to meet on a daily basis with the IOC to report any concerns about the testing process."


Scott, there's still time to bring in an independent expert! Someone that knows the WADA Code nearly as good as its original drafter (maybe better). Just call... WADAwatch is available. We promise not to show up in either of our WADAwatch hooded sweatshirt(s), available in Black or White!


After all, how complicated can a simple urinalysis be?


Is there more to a urinalysis that meets the eye (of any trained bureaucrat)...? Just ask the good Doctor's office in Avon Colorado!


Sometimes the best wayy to experience what these Athletes are going through is to experience yourself the necessity, embarrassment (how crass can one be in joking with the nurse about photographic evidence (pre-sealing of the containers)?), and 'faldoral' of the whole process?


Imagine being a known cyclist; who may be tested once per week or more? Yes, they must. Yes, they should. Yes, they agree. But if it is a different person every time... does it not get old?


But Hey! We're watching Vancouver, with you,

..........@......... WADAWATCH

one hundred percent pure
copyright 2010 Ww

Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword...

Cher Pierre, on va te faire prendre ta retraite ?


Dear Pierre, are they going to make you retire?


The decision is made, as of Friday 23 January, 2010. Pat McQuaid has announced, following the AFLD debacle of October, and the UCI reply that closed out that eventful month, that the AFLD will not be any part of the doping control for the 2010 Tour de France.

Imagine the chagrin now gnawing on naughty Pierre's psyche, and reputation, shot down by transparency and objective neutrality. No longer, will Tour Riders suffer to have their blood drawn by a French psychiatrist. The unconscionable actions of Plucky Pierre Bordry have met their just rewards.

News of this comes from The Independent Online website, Friday. We offer some of their quotations from Pat McQuaid, who was interviewed at the Tour Down Under (TDU):

"Next July, the UCI will carry out the tests and we are in discussion with WADA so that it sends its observers to supervise the UCI's work during the race... The Tour de France is the biggest cycling event in the world and we want to preserve it."

Hardly mentioned, it would seem natural that the UCI actually award the analysis of their riders' Samples to the Swiss Laboratoire, which had been involved in the 2009 TdF, for the analyses of all Samples sanguins.


This update will be revisited in a short while... it's noon in Switzerland, but only 04h20 here... in Denver Colorado (Home to Richard Young, neighbours with USADA).


Congratulations, riders on the Tour... you won't be kicked around by Plucky Pierre Bordry anymore!


And your rights will be protected, if not at all levels of the System, then...

..........@......... WADAWATCH

one hundred percent pure
copyright 2010 Ww

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WADAwatch: blatant self-promotion...

Is there a lighter side to the anti-doping world? WADAwatch believes there is, and without further ado, we add to the range of "WADAwatch" items now available to you, the discerning anti-doping specialist.


WADAwatch, a "100 per cent PURE" blog, which writes for expert and Spectator alike, has 'your mind in mind' for the assortment of items available for purchase via our 'partner' Café Press.


From mugs to Sigg (TM) bottles, T-shirts or hooded sweatshirts, beer steins or tote bags, you can visit our series of 'stores' to visualize each of our designs. NB: due to the structuring of Cafe Press, we have had to concede to that, by putting together pages featuring one design per color...
(Black and White, in honour of President the Honourable John Fahey's prioritizing remark). Note also that not all designs are available on an identical range of products.


WADAwatch is also not in a position to guarantee: a) general availability; b) size availability; or, c) delivery times. Cafe Press is a well-established web-site for on-demand purchasing, and we researched their system before agreeing to have them do our on-demand supply processing.

inventory

The LOGO of WADAwatch... is now available in a range of black or white long sleeve T-shirts (Shown in Black: $36.99), as well as in a Ceramic travel mug, large coffee mug or SIGG (TM) bottle.



You'll look good near any finish line!




Our first three 'designs' are of course, The WADAwatch LOGO, our '100 per cent PURE' design, and one of our upcoming humourous captions w/ Logo "Doping should be restricted to experienced, professional and medically-certified SPECTATORS!"


Now is the 'lighten up!' moment; if you've not experienced camping among our beloved Belgian, Dutch, German, English or French (mais bien sûr les français!) friends-of-cycling on the hillsides of the Tour de France (you have no idea how many hundreds of glasses of wine I've refused, on Col des Mosses, or de la Faucille, in Avoriaz one FATE-filled day, etc, by generous cycling fanatics, because I knew I had a screamin' downhill "human Slalom" to win, followed by a homeward leg of some 30-100km of pre-sunset dehydrated riding to perform...), they (many) are 'three sheets into the wind' as one HS teacher used to lament... some even before the Crack of Noon Club awakes...


So keep Sport clean by supporting WADAwatch! Enjoy our 'inventory' below, which will be expanded in coming weeks.


Remember: our list of products, distributed through Café Press, are organized through their 'one design' option, so you may have several links to enter, to get into each range of available, high quality items.


For WADAwatch LOGO items, visit the WADAwatch SWAGshop ; and then you can use the following links for our other four lines:



For the selection of "100 per cent PURE" items (see graphic above; Black);

For the "100 per cent PURE" (White) selection;






To become a WADAwatch Official Spectator (Black);

Or as for the Official Spectator range of White products.


As this re-orientation of a global viewpoint adjusts to this new centralized location in Colorado, we enjoy your continued support! Send your favourite Athlete, Anti-doping Agency or Laboratory a small momento that announces you are thinking about them...

What are friends for? :-)

..........@......... WADAWATCH

one hundred percent pure
copyright 2010 Ww

L'identité nationale et l'AFLD

Are you privy to the grand "Débate nationale" in France, about their "national identity" or... what it means to be French? This pre-election strategy, spawned by Minister of the Interior Eric Besson (a former 'Gauchiste' turned Sarkozyste, whom some observers have implied is merely gauging the times and shifting his alliances to selfishly further his political career opportunities), has become a national embarrassment to Nico, as their webpages devoted to the debate tend to have a high percentage of 'xenophobique' or 'raciste' commentaries that have been censored.


You may ask what any of this has to do with WADA, and doping in Sport?


Well, a recent article (today! In fact) in l'Equipe, discusses WADA's viewpoint of the efficiency and results accorded to the UCI's passport program. President the Honourable John Fahey, is quoted as saying "The results of last year speak for themselves," and "I believe - but I don't believe in a blind fashion - that the very solid program which had priorly been put into place (Ww: before the Tour), particularly the biological passport, has brought us maybe towards this that we observed."


Very interesting observation, because as we left the Old Continent for Colorado, shuttle diplomacy by Fahey was precisely our prediction, following the AFLD's scathing anonymous report and low-handed leaking of that into Le Monde's reputable (otherwise) newspaper (not to mention the UCI reply). See our October/November archives (to right), or our 2009 summary at this link, which contains links to most of those vital posts.


Now trust Ww, for the paper, l'Equipe, made a rare concession in the final paragraph in this article (when Floyd Landis expressed similar disparaging comments about the French lab, they were rarely reported, and if so, never analyzed properly), by expressing the UCI's charges concerning the "lack of professionalism" exhibited at multiple occasions. In light of the importance of collaborations between the UCI and the AFLD, Director General David Howman is quoted as stating that "they'd talked with both entities about these affairs", adding that the French Agency "would abstain from any further commentary (about the 'affair')."


Let us be lucid, in reflection now upon 'l'Identité nationale', as one may surmise it from Plucky Pierre Bordry, our esteemed French Directeur of the AFLD. Would he be inclined to add to the national debate, that 'Being French, iz to geeve uz zee right to accuze our parteenaires ov zee total favoritisme ov zees team Astana, ov Armstrong, ov Contador! And, after we accuze ze UCI, we have zee right to refuse all furzer commentary on zees now-embarrazzing issue!


Folks, if the legal theory of 'guilt by association' exists, there seems to be in this case (if we repeat ourselves, it's only because it seems 'vital to the cause'!) a case to be made for 'guilt by refusal to debate.' IOW: You have 'flaming accusations' by a French Anti-doping lab that will not publish those concerns directly, but WILL allow insinuations to be published by Le Monde and its shrill, obedient reporter Stephane Mandard. You have a follow-up report, within a delay of only 3 weeks and a few odd days, which is a) available worldwide; and, b) damning in its counter-accusations (A shrink drawing blood; accusations about 'Barcelona' that, though 'scrupulously reported', contained the Wrong Date, and of course, leaks to the press)


And now we glean from L'Equipe that, apparently, the predicted shuttle diplomacy is going on between AFLD and UCI, at the behest of WADA.


Our only question then, would be this: Is WADA using its 'best offices' activity, in resolving this issue, *with* Pierre Bordry, or with his boss(es)? In the 'Official Ww Playbook', all legitimacy falls on the side of the UCI, and hardly anything can be deemed credible from the nefarious, unpublished AFLD 'J'Accuse!' pseudo-report. Plucky Pierre should be given a 'demotion' from serving in a governmental function to which he has brought excessively-publicized dishonour.


A final note: remember we'd mentioned that the AFLD département des analyses had been responsible solely for the urine sampling of Tour cyclists, and that all blood analyses were performed by the Swiss lab, directed by Martial Saugy? One wonders how the UCI can ever trust Bordry's lab (now under interim direction by Mme la Docteur Lasne), with any urine samples?

The l'Equipe article had mentioned this:

"The former Australian Finance Minister also praised not only the biological passport, which permits detection eventual anomolies in following the blood profiles of racers, but also the new analyses made upon the Samples from the 2008 Tour, which had permitted to catch certain racers with a new test for CERA, a 3rd generation EPO."

Interestingly, l'Equipe makes no mention of the 'pagaille' (which we've previously, in good faith, and humour, translated as 'clusterfççk') concerning Stefan Schumacher's CERA case, which normally would have reached a decision months ago, and which we discussed in our post of 15 January (scroll down or 'find' "Schumacher"), seems to be heading for another weak, "Floyd-ish" decision (or acquittal, as Schumacher observed).


Our point is this: proclaiming a 'test' is 'valid' in a newspaper, is easy, swift and unjust. Awaiting the legal decisions, that of course weigh in on the validity of that test in quasi-legal formalities, with quasi-legal weight, and some form of precedent-setting continuity.


As writer for our sister-blog crystelZENmud, this question was contemplated, for the French 'national identity debate':

“How insecure does a nation have to be, to initiate a 'debate' on 'national identity'...? One could well imagine such a debate in Iraq, or Somalia, or Haiti, where discomfort, trauma and unrest outweigh the status quo of a prospering Western nation...

Silence from the AFLD, from Plucky Pierre Bordry, harkens from the similar events between Eric Besson and himself, each of whom launched, with ZERO Consequence Analysis, a report or a debate that are huge embarrassments for Nicolas Sarkozy. The French 'omniprésident' (as nicknamed by favoured paper Le Canard Enchainé), has not flown to Montréal yet, to promise millions if only WADA could help Bordry escape from the pain-in-the-morass in which he finds himself.


If you read WADAwatch because you 'have to', thank you anyway; if you read it because we're ramblingly legal, thorough and with unique insights, thank you even more... this author is suffering from the mother-of-all-headcolds, after transplant surgery (a life in Switzerland was extracted, and flown to Denver, Colorado, for reinsertion into a previously living organism). Your cards and letters, or upcoming purchases from the fine line of WADAwatch accessories (to be rapidly expanded from now until February), are very much appreciated...

..........@......... WADAWATCH

one hundred percent pure
copyright 2010 Ww