Stanislav Pozdnyakov: ‘Elena Isinbayeva has already made a great contribution to the fight against doping and will continue her work’

The First Vice-President of the ROC commented on Elena Isinbayeva’s resignation  as the head of   the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA).

‘First of all, I would like to thank Elena Isinbayeva for her work as Chairman of the Supervisory Board’, Stanislav Pozdnyakov said. ‘She headed the RUSADA when it was passing through a difficult time  and achieved remarkable results. The Russian Olympic Committee, as one of  RUSADA’s founders, highly evaluates the activities of Elena Isinbayeva as head of the Supervisory Board.

And I emphatically disagree with  the word ‘resignation’, which is now used by the media as applied to the two-time Olympic champion. I think we need to clarify that the RUSADA charter has recently changed. The Chairman of the Supervisory Board will now be elected from among the independent members, which in turn will further strengthen RUSADA’s independence. Thus, we are following the recommendations of the IOC, doing what many of our foreign colleagues have yet to do.

Before the election of the new head,  the RUSADA Supervisory Board will be headed by Alexander Ivlev,  Managing Partner for Russia, head of the client relations and CIS sector development department at  the Ernst & Young  Ltd.

As for Elena Isinbayeva, she has already made a big contribution to the fight against doping and will continue her work as a ROC representative   to the RUSADA Supervisory Board, and as a member of the IOC Athletes Commission and the Russian Ambassador to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).