I want to believe that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is fighting to make all sports better and clean, but every quote from some figure of WADA makes me crazy. Cyclingnews reports that John Fahey, the successor to infamous WADA chief and current IOC official Dick Pound, states that WADA may recommend that the International Olympic Committee remove weightlifting and cycling from the Olympics because of their history of rampant doping.
Yeah riiiight. Because those two sports are dirty compared to….I don’t know, track and field? I mean, there’s been no history of doping in track and field. And if there has been, it certainly hasn’t led to Olympic medals being reassigned or world records being invalidated.
(I was going to add a couple links here to relevant articles, but there were too many to choose. Go ahead and google “Olympic doping sprinter”)
How can anyone believe that WADA is not staffed entirely by power-tripping prima donnas? They wouldn’t dare threaten that track and field should be removed. Why? Money. Because there’s a lot of money in track and field for both the IOC and the athletes. Which is partially why there’s so much doping in track and field. But I don’t see that as a reason why cycling should be WADA’s bitch.
Cycling and sports in general need rules that can protect the health of athletes and promote fair competition, and there needs to be an organization that can impartially ensure that those rules are being followed. I’m just not sure WADA is that organization.
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