WARSAW, May 31 — World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) President Witold Banka vowed on Friday to continue speaking out forcefully about what he sees as serious flaws in the American anti-doping system, following his re-election to a third and final term as head of the global watchdog.
Banka, a former Polish sprinter and Minister of Sport and Tourism, along with China’s former Winter Olympic champion Yang Yang, was re-elected during a virtual Foundation Board meeting on Thursday. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) later, in a social media post, called it the “ultimate ‘bait and switch,’ first promising governance reforms following the Russian anti-doping scandal and then quietly changing the rules the second the world looked away.” On Friday, WADA’s president responded to USADA’s criticism.
“I’m not particularly surprised that such words were said in the USA.” Banka told Polish outlet Sportowe Fakty. “Representatives of this country actually tried to undermine my leadership in WADA and attempted to change the leader.
The American government stopped its contribution to WADA, lost a representative on the board of our institution and ultimately also influence on the elections.” “I’ll continue to speak boldly about the shortcomings of the American anti-doping system,” he added. “Large and highly developed Western countries love to lecture us all.
They love to talk about how the anti-doping system should look, but when we look at their solutions, it turns out that the biggest problem is with them,” he said. “This applies to the US, for example, but also to Germany.
When we had the case of 23 Chinese swimmers, they were the loudest, but they don’t pay attention to how big a problem they have with their own national systems,” Banka explained.
Banka and Yang were originally elected as WADA’s president and vice president at the 2019 World Conference on Doping in Sport. Both will begin their new three-year terms on Jan. 1, 2026, and serve until Dec. 31, 2028. (Xinhua)
