’60 Minutes:’ WADA received 200 emails from whistleblower (Yahoo Sports)
A whistleblower who uncovered systemic doping inside Russia’s track team told ”60 Minutes” he sent 200 emails and 50 letters about the cheating to the World Anti-Doping Agency, which told him it didn’t have the power to investigate inside the country. In an interview that aired on the CBS news show Sunday night, Vitaly Stepanov, a former worker at the Russian anti-doping agency, said after three years of correspondence, WADA eventually steered he and his wife, 800-meter runner Yulia, to a German TV network that produced the 2014 documentary that preceded WADA’s investigation. WADA spokesman Ben Nichols said before 2015, WADA didn’t have authority to conduct its own investigations, and officials didn’t think turning the information over to Russian investigators ”would have led to the scrutiny required.” Nichols said WADA was mostly worried that turning over the information would put the Stepanovs in danger.