News AP News White House, athletes pressure anti-doping body to reform

White House, athletes pressure anti-doping body to reform

Olympic athletes join acting White House drug czar, anti-doping officials from 7 other countries to call on World Anti-Doping Agency to reform its governance

White House, athletes pressure anti-doping body to reform Image Source : APWhite House, athletes pressure anti-doping body to reform

WASHINGTON (AP) — Olympic athletes have joined the acting White House drug czar and anti-doping officials to call on the World Anti-Doping Agency to reform its governance.

Wednesday's summit was organized by the Office of National Drug Control Policy in part as a response to WADA's reinstatement of Russia's anti-doping agency. The Russian agency was banned for three years for what investigators said was state-sponsored doping at the Sochi Olympics.

Acting drug czar James Carroll stopped short of threatening to withdraw U.S. funding to WADA, calling that "an issue of last resort." Instead, participants in the summit hope to pressure WADA to make changes from within that will eliminate conflicts of interest and give athletes a more prominent voice.

WADA said in a statement that the summit was one-sided and its representatives were not invited.

___

Follow Ben Nuckols on Twitter at https://twitter.com/APBenNuckols

___

More AP sports: https://apnews.com/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Disclaimer: This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Associated Press (AP) wire.