In an interview for Reuters, David Howman, the head of WADA, basically alluded that Pacquiao must be using performancing drugs. Before Pacquiao fans start reacting, Howman’s statement should be completely understandable since it comes from someone that obviously doesn’t know all the facts. As a matter of fact, his statements completely undermined the credibility of his agency.
First, it said in the article that Pacquiao did not agree to take a test after 30 days, when in fact, he did agree to be tested within 24 days of the fight and right after the fight.
Then he made the statements below, where he basically accused Pacquiao of cheating.
“Your first thought is he is cheating if he is not prepared to do something that shows he is not cheating,” Howman said of Pacquiao, who has never tested positive.
His statement favors Pacquiao since it’s obvious that the head of the agency does not care about checking the facts before making such accusations. With that type of statements, I would not quickly judge an athlete accused of steroids by WADA, since it’s obvious that it’s not a priority for the agency to gather all the facts before making such accusations, as proven by Mr. Howman statements.
WADA is supposed to be a respectable organization and as head of the agency, Howman must uphold that reputation. It’s one thing if another athlete accuses a colleague of using steroids without any evidence, but it’s more ridiculous when the head of an agency such as WADA makes such statements since they should be held to a higher standard. WADA’s job is to ensure that there is a fair playing field in sports, and that includes ensuring that those accused have gone through their due process and factual evidence has been gathered .
But Mr. Howman didn’t bother to do those things and thus completely downgraded his agency’s credibility. Instead of insinuating that Pacquiao must be cheating, he should have criticized the NSAC for not having a more strenuous type of testing. So Mr. Howman, before you make similar statements in the future, do some research first before WADA’s credibility becomes nada.
Source: boxing.fighthype.com
***
Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI'll try to check out your site.