Going back a few days on this one. On Friday, we joined up with SPM Professor Rick Burton to meet with WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency. Prof. Burton used to be Chief Marketing Officer of the USOC, so he is a great addition on our trip. At WADA, we met with Laetitia Zumbrunnen, Manager of International Federation. She gave us an overview of WADA, and their plans to have clean competition by protecting the athletes’ rights to participate in doping-free sport. Hinging on their mission, their motto is “Play True: Say NO! To Doping”. With a global budget of $25M, WADA faces an uphill battle to combat illegal doping in sport. They also need to be a step ahead of drug-producing companies and dopers, so they can test for certain PED’s before they become an epidemic in sports. Professor Burton told us in our meeting that the reason why baseball and softball were dropped from the Olympics was because they couldn’t cooperate with WADA’s drug testing policy on time.
In the afternoon, everyone had free time and split up. Some kids just relaxed by the water, a few went uptown with the professors to see the town, and others went to the Olympic Research Center. Overall, the few days spent in Lausanne were unbelievable. Our meetings with Olympic personnel, as well as the view of the Alps and much needed down time, were great to break up the constant sightseeing in London, Paris, and soon to be Greece.
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