JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, CMC- United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) says it wants to help the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) recover from a doping scandal that has rocked the athletics world.
Chief Executive Travis Tygart signaled USADA’s interest in assisting JADCO on the sidelines of the World Conference on Doping in Sport in South Africa this week.
Tygart said JADCO “reached out” to the USADA after an inspection visit to Jamaica late last month by a team from WADA.
“They need to get help. We want to see the WADA code implemented, and their athletes deserve better,” Tygart said.
“Right now, they’re being let down by their national doping (commission).”
The three bodies have continued discussions on a USADA-JADCO partnership at the World Conference on Doping in Sport in South Africa.
Tygart says USADA was “ready and willing” to help and already has aided their Jamaican counterparts by sending a team there in 2009 and hosting some Jamaican officials at the USADA offices in the United States.
But the USADA head warned that it would only work with JADCO if there was a “concerted effort” to improve its anti-doping efforts.
The WADA audit of Jamaica’s anti-doping processes came after it was revealed there was a near complete breakdown of its out-of-competition testing in the run-up to last year’s London Olympics.
Eight Jamaican athletes have failed drug tests this year, including former world 100-metre record holder Asafa Powell.
