WADA asks sports court to open Russia case to public hearing
Summary
Seeking more scrutiny for a blockbuster case, the World Anti-Doping Agency wants a rare public hearing when sport’s highest court judges a four-year slate of punishments faced by Russia for persistent cheating. Urged on by President Vladimir Putin, RUSADA has formally challenged a WADA ruling in December to declare the agency non-compliant after key data from the Moscow testing laboratory was corrupted. “It is WADA’s view — and that of many of our stakeholders — that this dispute at CAS should be held in a public forum to ensure that everybody understands the process and hears the arguments,” the Montreal-based agency’s director general, Olivier Niggli, said in a statement. The CAS panel of three judges will have power to enforce WADA-recommended sanctions during a four-year period including a ban on Russia’s team name, flag and anthem at Olympic Games and world championships. However, WADA investigators found evidence Russia edited the data in the weeks before the handover to remove signs of failed drug tests, and detailed an apparent attempt to smear former lab director Grigory Rodchenkov.