Montreal (AFP)
By excluding Russia from major international competitions for two years, even if its athletes will be able to compete under a neutral banner, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has taken an "extremely strong decision" which validates the investigation of the World Anti-Doping Agency ( AMA), welcomes its director general Olivier Niggli in an interview with AFP.
QUESTION: Are you satisfied with the decision of the CAS, which did not validate all the recommendations of the World Anti-Doping Agency against Russia?
ANSWER: "It is true that we are a little disappointed that some of the recommendations that we made were not taken up in full or in the same proportion. But the majority of these recommendations were taken up, and in particular the fact that the Russians will not be at the Olympic Games (under their usual jersey, editor's note) for a complete cycle, that is to say a summer and winter Olympics (...) This decision is extremely strong in the fact that 'it confirms that the system works, that the manipulations have been established and therefore that the allegations made by WADA have been verified and accepted by the CAS (...) WADA has played its role of prosecutor. left no element unanswered and we respect the decision of the tribunal which assessed the consequences which they considered to be adequate ".
Q: Are you considering an appeal against this decision?
Q: In your opinion, can this CAS decision change the attitude of the American anti-doping agency, which is very critical of WADA's action?
A: "I hope that our friends from the American anti-doping agency who were critical of the process followed in this case, will accept that in the end we have a strong decision against Russia, which allowed us to recover the data that were in Moscow and to prosecute individual cases, which would never have been possible if we had not made this decision. This confirms today that we have a robust legal system that allows us to manage this kind of situation".
Interview by Eric THOMAS
© 2020 AFP