WADA set to become a bigger brother

With the Russian doping scandal still roiling international sports and dividing its leaders, Olympic officials met in Switzerland on Saturday to discuss overhauling the world’s antidoping system. They emerged with a plan to increase the power of the World Anti-Doping Agency, affirming that organization’s central role in the fight against cheating. After a four-hour, closed-door meeting with some 20 sports officials, Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, announced the creation of a new drug-testing authority to operate under WADA and handle doping control at the Games — a responsibility that has long rested with the IOC. Surprising some antidoping officials who worried WADA would become a scapegoat, Mr. Bach expressed broad support for the agency, the 17-year-old regulator of drugs in sports. Mr. Bach called for WADA to be fortified but deferred to the agency itself on specifics, including how much more money it would need to carry out its expanded mandate. WADA is expected to take up the topic at executive meetings next month, and IOC officials will most likely review the decisions in December. But whatever happens, there better not be a repeat of that crap at Pyeongchang or Tokyo.