Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority chief executive David Sharpe fears a failure to hold systemic doping to account will make governing bodies lose control of sport and leave athletes disillusioned.
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Sharpe says the World Anti-Doping Agency has failed athletes following its decision to reinstate Russia's anti-doping agency, RUSADA, which was suspended in November 2015 after an independent report uncovered evidence of state-backed, systemic doping and cover-ups in Russian sport.
But the ban has been lifted after a WADA executive committee approved watered down criteria including an acceptance of IOC's Schmid Report and the implementation of a "clear timeline" for allowing access to stored urine samples at RUSADA's Moscow laboratory.
Sharpe says RUSADA has to meet stringent deadlines by the end of December to provide access to its database, and he is adamant WADA cannot afford to alter its conditions again.
"I’m sure there are athletes that do think ‘what’s the point?’," Sharpe told Fairfax Media.
"There is a side to this where we all want to see Russian athletes compete but if you don’t hold systemic doping issues to account, athletes won’t have confidence.
"The roadmap WADA initially [used] ensured Russia were going to be held account to has been changed. I understand that has probably been done with a view to trying to find a way forward.
"But I personally believe, when it’s systemic doping, you can’t alter conditions. Conditions are conditions and Russia should be held to account for those conditions.
"Not changing to appease them, hold them to account and make them abide by the world’s conditions to be reinstated.
"More than ever, athletes around the world need confidence in their anti-doping systems and programs and that sport is protected and clean.
"What we need to do now is move forward and make sure athletes regain confidence on the back of Russia. To do that the world anti-doping organisations and the leaders need to really come together and be a strong voice in support of athletes, and be able to ensure we have a strong and collective voice with WADA and everyone else with the athletes around the world."
WADA's backflip on its stance on Russia comes as the governing body deals with the departures of two highly regarded administrators in deputy director general Rob Koehler and compliance review committee member Beckie Scott.
Koehler threw his resignation on the table and walked out of WADA last month, leaving the agency without one of its biggest advocates of punishing state-backed doping.
Sharpe says Canadian Olympic gold medallist Scott's resignation is "a travesty for sport" given "she is the voice athletes need and she is the voice we all need to support".
Now the ASADA boss concedes he too has been left frustrated by the decision to lift the ban on Russia's anti-doping agency subject to various stringent conditions.
"I’ve got to say, I'm not surprised, but extremely disappointed on behalf of the world’s athletes," Sharpe said.
"The world’s athletes need strong leadership from administrators such as me and others around the world. They need to know their sport is protected. I think we’ve let them down, we’ve let athletes down.
"If we don’t stand up and hold systemic doping like this, which is the biggest scandal in the world of doping, if we don’t hold Russia to account properly, we actually will lose our ability to control clean sport.
"We don’t own sport, sport is about athletes and fans, and we can’t lose sight of that and let sport be tied up in politics and bureaucracy."
