Doping watchdog WADA mulling 3 presidential candidates

After the extreme stress test of a years-long Russian doping scandal, the World Anti-Doping Agency will get a new leader this year while still rebuilding trust with athletes.

The six-year presidency of IOC member Craig Reedie began with the steroid-tainted Sochi Olympics and will end in November with likely dozens of Russian doping cases unresolved in the ongoing fallout.

"This has been a complicated period," Reedie acknowledged Wednesday on the sidelines of WADA's annual hosting of anti-doping experts in the Olympic family's home city.

WADA has been hit from all sides during what the Scottish official described as "one of the biggest political stand-offs in world political affairs" of recent years.

Still, Reedie believes he hands over an organization that "comes out of it with very substantial credit, and if some of that bounces back on me then I will be happy to take it."
Reedie would not speculate on how the job has evolved in his time, but added: "I am sure a new president will have his own priorities."
Here's a look at what the candidates are focusing on:
WITOLD BANKA
Asked about the Russian case, he pivoted to suggest "we are forgetting about anti-doping blank spots."
Banka said almost 10 percent of the medals from the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics 306 events in total went to countries with a "very weak anti-doping system."
MARCOS DIAZ
WADA has had three white, male presidents from Anglo-Saxon countries since it was created in 1999. Now, Diaz believes it is time for a leader from "not only the Americas but a third-world country."
Asked about Helleland finding a late nomination proposal, Diaz said: "Will a country do that and break the gentlemen's rule? I hope not."
LINDA HELLELAND