Dick Pound

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Richard William Duncan Pound, OC, OQ (born March 22, 1942) is a partner of the Canadian law firm Stikeman Elliott and the chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) based in Montreal. He is a former vice-president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and was a one-time candidate for the presidency of that organization.

Contents 1 Career 2 Controversies 2.1 NHL 2.2 Lance Armstrong 2.3 Walter Mayer 3 References

[edit] Career

Born in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, Pound was a swimming competitor at the 1960 Summer Olympics. He finished sixth in the 100 meter freestyle and was also on Canada’s fourth place relay team. He would later win a number of medals at the 1962 Commonwealth Games. Retiring from swimming, he accepted a role with the Canadian Olympic Committee and eventually became its president.

In 1978, he was elected to the International Olympic Committee and put in charge of negotiating television and sponsorship deals. Pound revolutionized the Olympic movement using such deals to transform the IOC into a multi-billion dollar enterprise. At the same time he became known as an outspoken critic of corruption within the IOC under the leadership of Juan Antonio Samaranch. His criticisms were given a wide airing after the scandals surrounding the Salt Lake City Olympics broke, and he was then appointed head of the inquiry into the corruption. He also campaigned vehemently for stronger drug testing.

In 1992, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and in 1993 was made an Officer of the National Order of Quebec.

Pound has also served as Chancellor of McGill University since July 1, 1999 and is a partner in the law firm of Stikeman Elliott LLP in Montreal. He practises tax law. He is also the author of several books on legal history. He edits Pound’s Tax Case Notes, a review of tax-law court cases for lawyers. He did much of the reading of cases and the writing of the notes on international airplane flights to and from International Olympic Committee functions.

With the retirement of Samaranch in 2001, he ran for president of the IOC, but the IOC chose Belgian Jacques Rogge. Pound finished third behind South Korean Kim Un-Yong, who was one of those found to have participated in the Salt Lake City scandals, and who was later prosecuted by the South Korean government.

Pound scaled back his involvement with the IOC and became head of WADA. In that role he has overseen an unprecedented toughening of the drug-testing regimen. Pound has been an especially harsh critic of the Americans, arguing that there is widespread doping, especially amongst their track and field team. He has also worked to expand WADA beyond the Olympics, calling on the major sports leagues to agree to WADA scrutiny. His allegations of widespread doping in professional bicycle racing have at times brought WADA into fierce public conflict with the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).

[edit] Controversies

[edit] NHL

Discussing the National Hockey League in November 2005, Pound said, “you wouldn’t be far wrong if you said a third of hockey players are gaining some pharmaceutical assistance.”^[1] The basis for his allegations remain unknown. Both the NHL and NHLPA have denied the claims, demanding Pound provide evidence rather than make unsubstantiated claims. Since his comments were made, some NHL players have tested positive for banned substances, including Bryan Berard, Jose Theodore, and two of 250 players involved in Olympic testing. As of June 2006, there had been 1,406 tests in the program jointly administered by the league and the union, and none has come up with banned substances under NHL rules. Pound remained skeptical, claiming the NHL rules were too lax and unclear, as they do not test for some banned substance, including certain stimulants.^[2]

[edit] Lance Armstrong

In January 2004, Le Monde quoted Pound as saying that "the public knows that the riders in the Tour de France and the others are doping." This prompted a strongly-worded rebuke from Lance Armstrong, who called Pound's comments "careless and unacceptable."^[3] Pound said he was surprised by the personal nature of Armstrong's response because he had never mentioned the cyclist by name.

Around the same time, scientists at a French lab were using frozen urine samples from the 1999 Tour de France to find a new way of detecting erythropoietin (EPO), an oxygen-boosting agent. The samples did not have names attached to them and were provided for research purposes only. But an article in the August 23, 2005 edition of L'Équipe reported findings from the research with samples linked to Armstrong, claiming that six of his 15 samples showed traces of EPO. Pound told the media that there was "now an onus on Lance Armstrong and the others to explain how it is EPO got into their systems."^[4]

The Union Cycliste Internationale launched an enquiry, led by lawyer Emile Vrijman, former head of the Netherlands’ antidoping agency (and later defense lawyer of athletes accused of doping). In his 132-page report ^[5], leaked to the media on May 31, 2006, Vrijman said no proper records were kept of the samples and that there had been no chain of custody and no process to ensure that the samples had not been spiked with banned substances at the laboratory. The report was highly critical of WADA and Pound, concluding that they had specifically targetted Armstrong and the UCI. The report also called for an investigation to "focus on the communications between Dick Pound and the media" and recommended that no disciplinary action be taken against any athletes.

In response, Pound dismissed the Vrijman report as “so lacking in professionalism and objectivity that it borders on farcical.”^[6] WADA released an official statement, criticising the Vrijman report as biased, ill-informed, speculative, and "fallacious in many aspects."^[7]

On June 9, 2006, Armstrong sent an eight-page letter to Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, demanding that action be taken against Pound. He wrote that Pound was guilty of “reprehensible and indefensible” behaviour and "must be suspended or expelled from the Olympic movement." In February 2007, the IOC ethics committee recommended that Pound exercise greater prudence in his public pronouncements. It declined to move toward removing Pound as an IOC member, and found it had no jurisdiction over WADA. In response, Pound said he was accountable to WADA, not to the IOC.^[8]

[edit] Walter Mayer

Based on information supplied by WADA, Italian police raided the rooms of Austria’s cross-country and Nordic skiing team at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. Pound told reporters that blood-doping gear had been confiscated from the home of Austrian coach, Walter Mayer, a month earlier. Mayer brought defamation charges against Pound—and against IOC president Jacques Rogge—claiming that he had been slandered by their comments. Mayer withdrew his lawsuits in February 2007.

[edit] References

Academic Offices
Preceded by Gretta Chambers	Chancellor of McGill University 1999 – present	Incumbent