biker jk said:
Do you make this stuff up? John Fahey was confirmed as President of WADA seven years after the Sydney Olympics. He played and coached rugby league in his youth and was a director of the Bradman Foundation since 2001. Former Premier of NSW and lawyer. Give up the rubbish that Fahey wasn't qualified or had no credibility. Did you hear what he said about the Armstrong case?
As a Sydneysider you would know Fahey was never elected as Premier and never won an election. He inherited the job from the Deputy Premiership positoon after Greiner was forced to resign due to corruption. So he was No. 2 in a corrupt Govt who then lost Govt at the next election. Jumped from there to Federal Politics post the Olympics and after that went into WADA.
Following Festina in 1999, Fahey was very vocal and involved with the setup of WADA (and credit to him for that) as the process began in the lead up to the Olympics. He used his political position for the early involvement and the connections made at the time to secure the position later on. Go do some deeper research than simply looking at Wikipedia.
In relation to playing and coaching Rugby League, there are close to 25,000 registered coaches in NSW alone and who hasn't played junior rugby league in NSW. Playing junior league, does not offer huge credibility in terms of sport administration. No more than say playing little league baseball in the US makes someone a great sporting administrator.
In terms of the Bradman Foundation, I assume he must have got that gig because of his excellent sporting reputation as a junior league player? No. His connections and political positions helped him there too. John Howard is currently a Director. I wouldn't put his time on the Foundation as to do with his sporting admin credibility, but because as a politician he has general administration skills and knowledge.
In relation to Armstrong. What was Fahey saying about Armstrong before the USADA Reasoned Decision. The answer to that is next to nothing. He's a latter say saint in relation to Armstrong, just like many others.
He has no great sporting credibility prior to his role in administration of the Olympics and he only got to where he is as a result of his political connections. He's certainly no great crusader for clean sport.