WADA Hires Law Firm to Investigate Bullying Accusations

The World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) has hired the law firm Covington & Burling to investigate accusations of bullying by athlete committee chair Beckie Scott after she opposed the Russian Anti-Doping Association (RUSADA) reinstatement in spite of not meeting the initial conditions laid out for such a decision.

WADA announced the move on Thursday, saying that the law firm has been engaged to “further investigate allegations of improper conduct,” without specifically naming Scott. The initial findings of what WADA says is an ‘external, independent review’ of misconduct by members of the Executive Committee were presented at a meeting in Azerbaijan in November. The Executive Committee says that the ‘seriousness of the allegations’ warranted further investigation, even though their initial report found that there was no evidence of bullying.

While WADA is painting the hiring as a ‘mandate to conduct a full and thorough investigation of allegations of bullying and harassment’ and with instructions to ‘deliver unbiased and independent findings to the Executive Committee,’ the firm’s about me page focuses on the firm’s ability to benefit their clients, which in this case is WADA.

From the Covington & Burling about me page:

“What sets us apart is our ability to combine the tremendous strength in our litigation, investigations, and corporate practices with deep knowledge of policy and policymakers, and one of the world’s leading regulatory practices.

This enables us to create novel solutions to our clients’ toughest problems, successfully try their toughest cases and deliver commercially practical advice of the highest quality.”

Scott resigned from her position on the Compliance Review Committee (CRC) of WADA after the decision to reinstate RUSADA with lower standards than initially laid out to clean up Russia’s anti-doping apparatus. She was replaced on that committee by retired South African swimmer Penny Heyns, who took over that role as of January 1st.

The new, more lenient conditions for RUSADA’s reinstatement were not met after Russia authorities failed to meet a December 31st deadline to turn over laboratory database data to WADA authorities for an audit. A group from WADA traveled to Russia, but were denied access to the database by the December 31st deadline. That’s in spite of new RUSADA head Yuri Ganus publishing an open letter to Russian president Vladimir Putin asking for his help.

Scott remains the chairperson of the WADA athletes’ committee which released a brief statement after the deadline passed:

“We are extremely disappointed that the Dec. 31 deadline imposed on Russia by WADA has not been adhered to by the Russian authorities.

We now expect that following the process recommended by the CRC that Russia will be declared non-compliant. Only this action will be suitable and appropriate in the view of the athletes.

Anything less will be considered a failure by WADA to act on behalf of clean athletes”