I have a confession to make...back in 1996, when Atlanta was taking it on the chin for how it was running the Olympics, Richard Pound was one of the most vocal critics. One day, I told my boss that "someday if I am face to face with him, I am going to give him a piece of my mind!" Seven years later, he and I and his wife were having a most pleasant conversation in the lobby of the Prague Hilton. I had to (silently!) smile at the irony. To say back in 1996 I wasn't exactly enamoured of him was an understatement.
But in the years that followed, something happened. He said in an interview that he took reflection of himself and realised that some of the caustic comments he had made over the years probably didn't win him any friends, and broke bridges in the process. He made a subsequent comment about "mending fences"---and he did just that.
Not very many people in the Olympic world make such a dramatic transformation. His principled stance on doping, and ridding the Games of cheats, which ended up in several IOC officials resigning their positions most likely cost him the IOC presidency in 2001. When he was named to Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential in 2005, he made a comment that "in the old program, you had to hold up the liquor store five times instead of four before you got caught." When other people were decrying how bad doping was, Richard actually and actively set out to do something about it.
His term as the head of WADA ends in December. I hope he considers another try for the IOC presidency---because I sincerely believe there needs to be change, and that change can only happen from the top, and he's the man to do it.
Anyone who can stand alone and call out the drug cheats is a good guy, in my book.
