The World Anti-Doping Agency has been rocked by the resignation of Victoria Aggar, a highly respected member of its own Athlete Committee, who said she quit after Wada broke its promises and failed to protect clean athletes.
The Guardian revealed on Tuesday that Aggar, a retired British Paralympian who has served six years on the committee, was on the brink of going because of Wada’s “spineless and appalling” decision not to issue a blanket ban on Russia.
Echoing the views of many athletes, she also argued that allowing Russians to compete at Euro 2020 – and under a neutral flag at the 2020 Olympics and 2022 World Cup despite a four-year ban imposed on Monday – made a mockery of the system.
But in her written resignation letter Aggar went further still – revealing that Wada had suppressed the voices of its Athlete Committee, which is supposed to reflect the views of thousands of sportsmen and women on anti-doping matters.
“I do not feel that Wada exists any more,” said Aggar. “Too many political games (or machinations), too many conflicts and too much self-interest has led to too many bad decisions, compromises and broken promises.
“Most recently the biggest blow to athletes is the decision by Wada to ignore calls from its very own Athlete Committee for Russia to be banned from competing at the next Olympic and Paralympic Games, despite promising earlier this year to enforce the toughest sanctions available if the retrieved data from Moscow was found to be manipulated,” she added.
Aggar also revealed that Wada had refused to publish recent Athlete Committee’s statements on its website.
“I am a firm believer that all athletes have the right to an unfiltered voice,” she added. “The concept of silencing athletes is one of the reasons why we are seeing so much abuse in sport and it only serves to reinforce the imbalance of power.
“Events over the past two years have fundamentally shaken my belief in an organisation that I felt initially served a great purpose in protecting the integrity of sport – protecting clean athletes on their journey of pursuing their dreams.”
