Preventing a paradise for cheats with WADA president Witold Bańka (ft. Ben Sandford & Bronwen Knox)

President of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Witold Bańka says the agency is monitoring the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) in the wake of the war in Ukraine.

Speaking on Sport Integrity Australia’s On Side podcast at the WADA Global Education Conference, Bańka said the situation remained very complex.   

“The fact that Russian and Belarussian athletes are not competing in internationally, at least majority of them, some of them they are able to compete as in neutral, but the majority are sanctioned, is very, very complicated,” he said.  

“We decided not to close the open line of communication with RUSADA. The world cannot create a paradise for cheats.”  

WADA’s president believes the anti-doping system is currently working well but acknowledges there is always room for improvement.

 “It's a race, you know. It's a race with the cheats,” he said. “We have to be stronger. We have to be faster. We have to have better tools to eradicate doping from sports. The rules are OK, [the] system works, but we still have to think ‘how we can do more?’”

Bańka also talks about the biggest challenges WADA faces, the role education plays in WADA’s development and balancing their role of catching and punishing versus protecting and supporting.

We also sit down with WADA’s Athlete Committee Chair Ben Sandford and 4 x Olympian and Integrity Manager for Boxing, Judo and Taekwondo Bronwen Knox to discuss the importance of the athlete’s voice.

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