(ATR) The European candidate for WADA president will be chosen by the sports ministers of the Council of Europe at the end of the month.
The Polish Minister of Sport Witold Banka is the favorite, having secured the recommendation of the Standing Committee on Doping of the Council of Europe in a vote late last month. He received 28 out of 49 votes, the Norwegian Linda Helleland finishing second with 16.
The chairman of the committee is Rafal Piechota, who was also Banka’s campaign director. Piechota's primary occupation is deputy director within Banka's Ministry of Sport and Tourism. He also serves on several WADA commissions.
Helleland's hardline stance against Russia in the fallout from the state-run doping scandal is responsible for her election result, it is said. Helleland, the WADA vice-president, said in a press release that one has to pay for opposing Russia in international sport. She had not chosen an easy path, but she was convinced that she had chosen the right one.
When the ban against the Russian Anti-Doping Agency was lifted, she voted against it.
Banka attributes his success to his planned reform program for the World Anti-Doping Agency, which includes additional accredited doping control laboratories, more transparency and a solidarity fund for financially weak states. He also said that he had reformed the Polish Anti-Doping Agency very quickly.
As Polish Sports and Tourism Minister, Banka also wants to regulate the organization of Polish sport.
"It is no secret that many sports federations are involved in internal conflicts, that funds will not be spent efficiently and that there is a lack of transparency. That is why we are preparing a major reform. From January 2021 onwards, an institute will be set up to finance sport. It will be under government control and employ several dozen coaches for different disciplines."
These coaches will work directly with coaches in clubs and also with professional athletes. The associations will therefore be bypassed. They should continue to be responsible for which athletes Poland sends to international competitions. But Minister Banka makes no secret of the fact that he wants more control.
"Only the Ministry of Sport will decide which disciplines the government wants to support and how. But of course there will be a broad discussion before the reform."
But his big goal is the office of WADA president. "Never before has a Pole held such a high office in international sport," he says.
Banka already feels that he is about to be nominated as a presidential candidate.
"According to the recommendation of the ad hoc commission, the election at the Sports Ministers' Conference in the Council of Europe at the end of February is only a formal act. In May, the group of governments in WADA in Montreal then elects the president from among the continental candidates."
For Banka, these are all just formalities. But his competitor Helleland does not want to give up yet. At the conference of sports ministers on February 27, she will again challenge Banka when it comes to the final vote for the European candidate.
In addition, Marcos Diaz from the Dominican Republic is expected to apply later for the continental nomination from the Americas. Experts also expect an applicant from Asia.
The election of the new WADA President will take place at the World Anti-Doping Conference in November in Katowice, Poland.
Homepage photo: Wikipedia
Written by Heinz Peter Kreuzer
For general comments or questions,click here.
25 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.
Recent Articles
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
