Beckie Scott, a Canadian Olympic gold medalist in cross-country skiing, has refused to participate in the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) investigation into her allegations of bullying. She told the CBC last week that she believes the investigation lacks transparency and is “akin to a kangaroo court.”
Both Scott and Edwin Moses, who are the chairs of WADA‘s athlete committee and education committee, respectively, have declined to perform interviews with the law firm that WADA hired to perform the investigation, Covington & Burling. Moses says that he witnessed the bullying.
Among the complaints from the pair are that the law firm hired by WADA is representing the agency on another matter, and that Scott and Moses aren’t allowed to conduct their own questioning of WADA president Craig Reedie and director general Olivier Niggli.
Scott has been at odds with the WADA executive over its handling of the Russia investigation. In September, Scott resigned from the Compliance Review Committee after the organization agreed to reinstate the Russian anti-doping arm RUSADA with reduced standards of compliance.
Scott claims that she was ‘bullied’ by members of the WADA executive over her views on the Russia reinstatement.
In a released statement, WADA says that it “is unfortunate that Ms. Scott and Mr. Moses…have refused to cooperate with the very process they themselves called for. While their refusal to explain their perspective on an issue they raised is regrettable and unusual, WADA has continued in good faith to ensure these serious allegations are investigated as thoroughly and as fairly as possible and expects that the investigation will conclude shortly.”
Initial findings were presented at an Executive Committee in November “did not conclude that bullying had taken place,” WADA says.
“Covington was selected based on the strength of a distinguished track record for conducting such investigations thoroughly and fairly. It has previously been involved in a number of high-profile investigations, including recent cases involving Uber and the US television network, CBS. Covington has been conducting this investigation in a confidential manner, entirely independently of WADA and without any outside interference. WADA has not given Covington any orders or direction as to who it may or may not interview, what questions it may or may not ask of any individual, or what its conclusions should be.”
WADA says that they expect that the law firm will present a report to the Executive Committee at its next meeting, which will take place in Montreal on May 15th.
Hot potato!