THE CANADIAN PRESS
Dick Pound has ruffled more than a few feathers during his eight-year term as president of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Criticized for being confrontational and uncompromising in the battle against performance-enhancing drugs, the Montreal lawyer makes no apologies for the methods he used to fight cheaters in sport.
"I think in order to do the job I’m doing properly you have to be confrontational," Pound told The Canadian Press in a recent interview. "You are dealing with systematic, organized cheating. You have to find them out and confront them and embarrass them and do whatever you can to bring attention to them."
The 65-year-old Pound is stepping down as head of WADA and his successor will be appointed this weekend during the World Conference on Doping in Sport in Madrid. Australia’s John Fahey is seen as the lone candidate.
Pound usually dresses in a dark suit but has the persona of dock worker who won’t back down from a fight. Instead of throwing punches he jabs you with a caustic tongue and a battery of science.
His damn-the-torpedo style has made enemies.
Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong called for Pound to be fired. Ted Saskin, the former president of the NHL Players’ Association, accused the one-time Olympic swimmer and IOC member of being more interested in publicity than the facts.
Others, like Paul Melia, president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, credit Pound with promoting a simple message in the complex and sometimes confusing world of steroids and human growth hormones.
"He was the right person at the right time for that organization," said Melia. "That organization needed instant public profile, media attention.
"Dick is able to command media attention. No one is better with a quick one-liner."
Beckie Scott, an Olympic gold medallist in cross-country skiing, said there was substance behind Pound’s showmanship.
Scott, who had her own run-ins with Pound, said he showed the same zeal whether battling drugs in the Tour de France or challenging the NHL’s steroid policy.
"As a front man and a media personality … I think he’s done a good job in many scenarios of calling out people in situations that needed to be called out," said the Canadian, who sits on WADA’s athletes’ committee and foundation board. "The cycling situation, it has been an antagonistic relationship for sure but he called a spade a spade."
Pound leaves the job confident that he’s made considerable progress.
"I’m happy about that," said Pound, who’s also a member of the Canadian Olympic Committee. "We’re certainly a long way from winning the fight. If you look back at the state of affairs before WADA existed and the state of affairs now, I think you can see there has been a tremendous amount of work done and good work done."
People like Floyd Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after a positive drug test, have argued WADA’s testing is flawed. Some complain innocent athletes are being smeared in a witchhunt.
Pound defends WADA’s practices and procedures.
"We don’t put a test out there unless it is scientifically reliable," he countered. "We have no interest in punishing an athlete who is not doping.
"I think we are far more likely to get a false negative than a false positive. The system gives the athlete every opportunity to defend themselves. I think a lot of the violin music you hear about the system being stacked against the athlete is dead wrong."<.
One of the biggest triumphs for Pound is the growing public disdain for athletes who use drugs. Sports that don’t recognize this continue at their own peril, says Pound.
"People are going to get so fed up with a bunch of tawdry cheaters and the people who are enabling this to go on, I think fans are going to say `Enough … we’ll vote with our feet,"’ he said.
"I think cycling has looked right into the chasm this year. You get newspapers in western Europe saying we’re not going to cover this anymore. German TV said we paid rights to watch a sports competition not a pharmaceutical exercise. I think that’s a sport that really is teetering on the brink."
Pound said former Olympic poster girl Marion Jones didn’t deserve any sympathy after admitting she was fuelled by steroids.
"Marion Jones had an entourage around her that was counselling her, encouraging her, enabling her, directing her," he said. "She was paying lots of money for stuff like that, all to cheat. I don’t think you need to be at all sympathetic about that."
Pound’s flamboyant style has served its purpose but Melia and Scott said it’s time for WADA to move in another direction.
"Often the seeds of doping are sown at the community sport level," said Melia. "We can’t continue to just try and catch athletes when they are cheating without recognizing they are coming out of sport cultures that at times are driving them in that direction."
Scott said WADA is beginning to work with international agencies like Interpol to stop the flow of drugs before they reach athletes.
"They are realizing testing alone does not accomplish much," she said.
As for Pound, he’s looking ahead.
He’s considering seeking election as president of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, an arbitration body for disputes involving athletes.
"It would be nice for once in my 30 years in the IOC to be given a job about which I actually know something," Pound said with a laugh.
"I think that an arbitration court of this nature has a tremendous amount of potential. Not just on doping questions, but to get speedy, inexpensive results for a whole range of sports related disputes decided by people who actually understand sport."