Sensitive souls be warned: the earth could well shake with violent tremors on Thursday January 14, 2016, a little after the beginning of the afternoon. The epicenter of the earthquake has already been identified: a hotel in the German city of Munich. At 15 p.m. sharp, the Canadian Dick Pound (our photo), oldest member of the IOC and above all president of the independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), will open a press conference that is expected to be explosive. She will unveil the second part of the report on doping in athletics. Episode 2 of a soap opera that the IAAF would have preferred to never see begin.
Last November, the first part of this now famous report sent the Russian Federation to the bench of infamy. Calling into question its leaders, but also its sports authorities and the Russian anti-doping agency, it led the IAAF and its president, Sebastian Coe, to issue a provisional suspension of Russian athletics.
The second part should be at least as dark. Above all, it could expand the spectrum beyond Russia's borders. At the top of the list of countries concerned: Kenya. Just behind, a newcomer in the flood of rumors: Jamaica.
A master in the art of suspense and the effect of announcement, Dick Pound warned in the British press: “When we make this information public, there will be a shock effect. I think people will wonder how this could have been possible. This is a complete betrayal of what the people in charge of the sport should be doing. »
David Howman, the future former director of WADA (he is due to leave office next June after 13 years of good and loyal service), followed suit in the press of his country, New Zealand: “Wait- you to new revelations and unpublished details on the level of corruption. The report will reveal information on payments made by Russian leaders to the IAAF. It’s shocking and quite awful. »
A new Russian affair, then? Not only. Responding to questions from a major Japanese daily, the Yomiuri Shimbun, Dick Pound was a little more precise on the content of the second part of the independent commission's report. He explains that the commission's experts studied in detail the IAAF database, which contains the names of 5.000 athletes. An investigation which revealed that there was, according to the Canadian, “very clearly a problem with Kenya. » Dick Pound insists: “I am today quite convinced that an investigation comparable to that carried out in Russian athletics will soon be carried out in Kenya. »
But, surprise, the former president of the AMA goes further. He also mentions another country: Jamaica. “There has certainly been a problem with Jamaica in the past as well,” suggests Dick Pound. I remember going there shortly after the 2012 London Games, where Jamaican athletes dominated the track and field sprint events. I explained to people that, for a country of only 2 million inhabitants, to dominate a discipline so much without having carried out a single doping test for almost an entire year before the Games was a problem. A very serious problem. »
Will the earthquake announced next Thursday affect, in addition to Russia and the IAAF, Kenya and Jamaica? Reading between the lines of Dick Pound's statements, it is easy to think so.
The second part of the report of the independent WADA commission will be published on the Agency's website, at the precise moment when the press conference in Munich begins.
