On May 29, an allegedly independent Wada President will be elected for the first time who will take office in 2026. The incumbent Witold Banka was the only candidate – competitors.
It will be a short process, which is based on the World Anti-Doping Agency itself on its website. On Thursday (May 29), her Foundation Board, a kind of supervisory board of the global doping control institution. The committee wants to choose a new president and a vice. Everything should go across the stage in a zoom meeting.
The 40 members of the board of trustees should reserve two hours, writes the Wada. So that everything goes as short and crisp as it is unspectacular, clever strategists have threaded a plan behind closed doors. You have devised a so -called election package that makes it possible to quickly determine people who are supposed to lead the WADA for three years from January 1, 2026.
There are no really independent candidates
After a series of scandals, the Wada wants to give the impression that the reform path had been taken with the choice of an independent president. And since the agency was founded in 1999, the two financier factions, i.e. the International Olympic Committee, have alternately provided the president.
However, it has long been clear that the first supposedly independent president will be the same man who was chosen by the governments in 2019 and started in 2020 as their candidate: Pole Witold Banka. There are no other, really independent candidates. Interested parties did not make it through the pre -selection process. There are no other, really independent applicants.
The IOC had committed itself to Banka as President and his previous Vice President Yang Yang from China, selected by the IOC. So the impression is not far -fetched, the official deadlines and tender scenarios could be pure democracy facade. “It will be a crowning glory, no choice,” says the head of the American anti-doping agency, Travis Tygart. After the numerous Wada scandals in recent years, it is one of the most volatile critics of the Wada leadership.
Critics in populist manner attacked head -on
Many doping hunters worldwide, including the Germans, French and South African, actually still complain about the loss of trust, the controversial Wada decisions under the leadership of Banka to the anti-doping fight: the secret reveal of 23 positively tested swimmers from China because of alleged contamination or the surprisingly low punishment of the world’s best tennis professional Sinner from Italy. He only had to expose three months – for a offense for which others have been blocked for years.
There is also Banka’s leadership style to attack critics in a populist manner head-on instead of moderating and using criticism in terms of content to optimize the anti-doping fight. Most recently, Banka had accused the numerous critics of his organization “politically motivated attacks” and the use of “conspiracy theories” in a speech in Lausanne.
“I am happy to run for a re-election as a Wada president,” said Banka, “I am confident that we will achieve more together in the coming years.”
7.2 million US dollars are missing
The president, who has been in office since 2020, has created many current construction sites. Skeptics doubt that he can solve her with his style. On January 8, 2025, the US government still announced with the administration of Joe Biden to hold the payment of its contributions back to WADA for 2024 in the amount of $ 3.6 million. The United States has been the largest state contributor since Wada was founded. And due to the financing rule that the IOC doubles government payments, the WADA loses $ 7.2 million of its total budget for 2025 of $ 57.5 million.
Even the current US government is not suspected of being particularly gracious to China-friendly or the Wada. “The world-anti-doping agency allowed Communist China and Russia to lie, cheat and steal, which endangered American athletes,” the chairwoman of the subcontract for consumer protection, Republican US Senator Marsha Blackburn, had it only cited a few days ago: “When the congress used its control authorities To examine Wada, as if they were over the law.
The top doping fighter in the USA, Tygart, warns the Wada and Banka: “division, division, non -participation of interest groups, exclusion of the press of sessions, sue of interest groups to suppress freedom of speech – split is not the way to be successful in the doping control.”
Travis Tygart, head of the US anti-doping agency
Alternatives prevented almost systematically
Possible alternative candidates for Wada President Banka, however, seem to have been prevented almost systematically. It is a difficult undertaking to convince high -ranking politicians and functions of their skills within a very short period of time. They had to teach two nomination forms, each signed by a member of the Board of Trustees, within just under two months after the tender, one from the circle of 20 seats of the Olympic movement and one from the circle of 20 seats of the governments. It is almost hopeless to get a single signature from these groups, since it is usually coordinated within the groups.
When you see how many institutions are deciding together, it becomes clear why it is so difficult: The 20 members of the board of directors from governments are elected as representatives of Africa, America, Asia, the Member States of the European Union, Oceania and the national anti-doping organizations. Eleven of the government officials are national ministers for sports, youth and culture in their home countries.
The thwarted opposite candidate
The 20 members of the Foundation Council from the Olympic Movement represent the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the IOC Athlete Commission, the Association of the National Olympic Committee (ANOC), the Association of the International Summer Sports Associations (ASOIF), the International Winter Sports Associations (WOF), the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the Wada Athlete Council.
The ARD has found out of a case: The Dutchman Chiel Warner, 47 years old, a former decathlon, Olympic fifth in Athens, today tax lawyer and in his homeland, was hired against sports manipulation. “The fact that you only need support letters for an independent office does not seem particularly democratic,” said Warner, who wanted to run, the ARD doping editorial team, “especially since it is not even clear how to do this to get this support. In practice, you can exclude candidates from the start-and that is exactly what happened here.”