Welcome back to the podcast, Brib, Swindle, or Steel.

I'm Alexandra Rogge, and today we're talking about the sad and discouraging epidemic of doping in sports.

Our guest is Rob Keeler.

Rob is the Director General of Global Athlete, an international athlete-led movement,

leading positive change in world sport and addressing the imbalance of power between

athletes and administrators. Rob was previously with WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency,

where he served as Deputy Director General from 2002 to 2019. Rob, thank you for joining me.

It's a pleasure to be with you today.

Can you start by just describing the scope of the problem?

I think most people are aware of the Rodchenkoff story, the state-sponsored doping scheme

at the Sochi Olympics, but I don't think people really understand, or at least I didn't, how widespread the

problem is.

I think you really have to take a step back and do a very quick dive into the history of water

and how water was established.

And doing that gives you a better idea of where it's come and where it is today.

And water was established in 1999 as a result of the Fistina scandal in France,

the cycling championships, where there was police raids and they undercover copious amount of

doping products, EPO, and substances cyclists were using. And at that time, the IOC

realized, hold on here, international sport and the IOC maybe shouldn't be managing doping. And maybe

it's bad for their image. So that's where the whole idea of establishing an international body

outside of sport to look at the doping

problem.

...