The White House drug czar, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, is claiming a victory in his battle to make a new drug-testing agency independent of the International Olympic Committee following a meeting with representatives of more than two dozen nations in Sydney, Australia.
Although there was plenty of controversy surrounding McCaffrey's visit, he saw it differently."It was a triumph. It was unbelievable," McCaffrey told the Deseret News Wednesday in a telephone interview from Los Angeles during a stopover on his trip back to Washington, D.C. "We now have a way to shape the evolution of WADA," the World Anti-Doping Agency being set up by the IOC.
Participants at the Sydney conference, which ended Wednesday, agreed to establish a "consultative group" on anti-doping that will be headed up by Canada and Australia. One of the group's first goals to is to resolve the issue of how governments like the United States can participate in the anti-doping agency.
McCaffrey, who tried and failed to win similar support from the European Union, said now the United States is one of many nations seeking an independent agency to oversee the testing of athletes for performance-enhancing drugs.
He said the United States will wait to see how the IOC reacts to the initiative, approved during the "Drugs in Sport" summit by nations including Australia, Canada and South Africa as well as Latin American and Asian countries.
"We ought to get what we can get for Sydney," McCaffrey said. "Salt Lake City ought to do one better." But he said he could not predict whether the United States would sign on to the anti-doping agency before the 2002 Winter Games.
The opportunity for IOC reaction could come soon, now that McCaffrey has accepted an invitation to meet with IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch. That meeting has not yet been scheduled.
McCaffrey said that contrary to press reports, his visit to Sydney went smoothly.
There was, for example, an unsuccessful attempt by organizers of the 2000 Summer Games to ban McCaffrey from visiting Sydney's Olympic venues. The Australian Olympic Committee president, John Coates, labeled McCaffrey "no friend of the Olympic movement."
The drug czar was also criticized by an IOC member from Australia, Kevan Gosper. Gosper said he believed "the United States has not really kept fully in touch with developments that have taken place" in the doping control effort.
No doubt McCaffrey has invited such hostility. In September, he told members of the Deseret News editorial board that he'd "never seen anything like (the IOC) . . . a group of self-appointed people hiding behind a myth," led by a "former fascist in his 80s (who) is now exercising unilateral authority."
That leader, Samaranch, offered this week to meet with McCaffrey at IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. McCaffrey accepted in a Nov. 12 letter to Samaranch that took a much different tone with the aging IOC official.
McCaffrey said in the letter he welcomed "the opportunity to work with the IOC in a collegial and mutually respectful way to eliminate doping in Olympic sports."
He wrote that while the United States remains concerned about the anti-drug agency, "we view the IOC's desire to improve on the provisional (agency) structure as a positive step. We also welcome the IOC's expressed willingness to work with the community of nations to further this effort."
McCaffrey said Wednesday he spoke in September out of "more than frustration. It was really astonishment" at the IOC's attitude, which he described as "one of arrogance."
McCaffrey said that despite support he saw for the U.S. position in Sydney, he continues to seek the ouster of the newly appointed head of the anti-doping agency, IOC Vice President Dick Pound. The naming of Pound to head the agency is seen as another indication of the IOC's control.
McCaffrey said in Australia that Pound "is brilliant . . . . He's smart, he's a potential future president of the IOC, but he's also the marketer. . . . You shouldn't have your marketer being the independent drug-testing person."
Pound, who has said he did not expect Samaranch to meet with McCaffrey, has suggested there eventually would be a role for the United States and other governments in the agency. He said a position on the board could rotate among nations hosting the Olympics.
In a two-page list of the U.S. government's suggested improvements to the agency, sent to Samaranch, McCaffrey states that national government representatives should be democratically selected by region "not anointed by the IOC or (the agency)."
The list also reiterates the U.S. position that the anti-drug agency should be independent and accountable, and subject athletes to random testing year-round. The results should be preserved and not be subject to a statute of limitations.