WADA Chief Claims Countries Should Test Each Other’s Athletes

David Howman, director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), has suggested there would be a greater “enthusiasm” for catching doping cheats if different countries were responsible for testing each other’s athletes.

Howman claimed such an approach would help to make testing procedures more thorough across the globe whilst warning that the criminal underworld “controls a significant proportion of world sport” through drug trafficking and illegal betting.

Howman stated: “Why don’t we get France to drug test Germany and Germany to drug test France? Perhaps there would be more enthusiasm for catching cheats from another country.”

The WADA chief added that his warning about widespread criminal involvement in world sport had come from sources at Interpol and law enforcement agencies, “some of whom are actively engaged in projects that are trying to address the issue”.

He added: “They say the underworld is involved in betting and in distributing steroids and it’s the same jokers, it’s not anybody new. I have been saying this for five or six years and now Interpol are justifying it. They now have the numbers and the information and they are really worried about it.”

In an interview with BBC Sport, Howman also said that he believed some scientists at doping laboratories were opting not to report borderline cases. “It’s human nature,” he added. “You get a borderline case and you think: ‘What are the implications going to be? It’s going to be challenged, therefore I am going to be before a tribunal, I’m going to be rigorously cross-examined, I’m days away from the office.’ All those sorts of things go through a human’s mind.”