WADA looks to governments to help fight drugs

By Steve Keating

MONTREAL (Reuters) - A victory anti-doping crusaders once believed impossible is now within reach with the help of powerful new allies as the war on performance-enhancing drugs in sport moves on to new fronts.

When the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was launched 10 years ago on November 10, the sporting landscape was being bombarded by doping scandals with few weapons available to combat increasingly brazen drug cheats.

As WADA prepares to move into a second decade spearheading the fight against drugs in sport, the agency has compiled an impressive list of victories and built a formidable arsenal capable of attacking cheats from every angle.

"I guess it depends how you define a win," Dick Pound, WADA chief from 1999 to 2007, told Reuters. "There will always be cheaters.

"But the gap which maybe used to be a year or two years is now down to maybe something in the weeks. Our science is as good as theirs.

"I think you can say you've won the fight against doping in sport if you've persuaded 99.9 percent of the people not to do it because it's the wrong thing to do, it's dangerous or that they're going to get caught.

"Then you can say to that 99.9 percent that those who cheat we will catch them.

"We have the will and we have the means to catch them and we'll have sanctions that will take them out of your hair once we do catch them. It is winnable if everybody stays focused on it."

An anti-doping code accepted by more than 630 sports organizations and the UNESCO convention against doping in sport ratified by more than 125 of 193 member states have left drug cheats few places to hide.

Tough sanctions, sophisticated testing, research and educational projects and testers armed with a whereabouts rule allowing them to check athletes anywhere at anytime have put cheats on the defensive.

GOVERNMENT HELP

Over the next 10 years it will be governments and law enforcement agencies applying the pressure as the focus shifts from catching the dopers to those who supply the drugs.

IOC president Jacques Rogge has acknowledged that sports organizations cannot fight alone and will need help from governments to investigate and dismantle doping operations.

While Pound had a reputation for no-nonsense tough talking, John Fahey, the man who replaced him at the agency's helm in 2008, has brought diplomacy to the fight.

Using considerable political skills sharpened by years of service in the Australian parliament, Fahey has taken a more low-key approach to the job of building powerful alliances with governments and law enforcement agencies.