Pound proud of WADA's achievements

By Steve Keating

MONTREAL (Reuters) - As the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) prepares to celebrate its 10th anniversary, former chief Dick Pound is proud of what the body has achieved in a decade.

"If you look back at where we were in 1999 and I said to you: 'In five years we will have an up-and-running organization fully funded by two stakeholder groups, a single set of rules applicable to all countries, all athletes and all sports, an international convention ratified by 130 countries under UNESCO...' you would have said: 'We should go and get you tested, what are you smoking?'," Pound told Reuters.

"As I look back on my failed run to be president of the IOC (International Olympic Committee) I think, in retrospect, I may have been able to do more for the integrity of sport wearing the WADA hat than I would have as president of the IOC."

When WADA opened for business, drugs in sport had already become a worldwide epidemic and fair play was a quaint idea from the past.

Doping was firmly entrenched in the sporting culture, largely tolerated, if not tacitly accepted, by those who competed in everything from cycling's Tour de France to baseball's World Series.

With no meaningful out-of-competition testing, a mish-mash of sanctions and banned substance lists, entrepreneurs such as BALCO mastermind Victor Conte operated in near impunity, pushing out designer steroids faster than tests could be developed to detect them.

In the northern summer of 1998, disturbing images of French police raiding team hotels in search of drugs during the Tour de France were broadcast around the world.

Suddenly doping was an issue that could no longer be ignored and the shocking scenes provided the catalyst for the formation of a world anti-doping agency.