Fahey ready for WADA challenge

SYDNEY, Australia -- Facing a challenge brings out the best in John Fahey.

It’s a quality that will serve him well as the likely successor to Dick Pound as president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, the international body established in 1999 to coordinate the fight against drugs in sports.

Fahey has never shrunk from adversity, whether it was leading Sydney’s successful bid for the 2000 Olympics -- and celebrating the victory with a gold-medal worthy leap for joy -- helping foil a potential shooting of Britain’s Prince Charles, beating lung cancer, or overcoming a daughter’s death in a car crash.

The 62-year-old’s perseverance will again be tested when he is thrust into the high-profile role as head of the Montreal-based WADA. The former Australian finance minister and leader of New South Wales state is the only candidate to succeed Pound following the surprise withdrawal last month of France’s Jean-Francois Lamour.

He should be elected the new president on Nov. 17 in Madrid, and will take over for Pound officially on Jan. 1.

“If the election carries, I hope to get more government involvement in the fight against doping, more cooperation,” Fahey told the Associated Press in an interview. “That isn’t to suggest it isn’t there now, but the more that’s there, the better the outcome.”

Lamour’s withdrawal has tinged Fahey’s expected presidency with controversy, something Fahey didn’t expect when he was approached by Australian and international officials -- he prefers not to identify them -- to bid for the unpaid and high-pressure job.

Two weeks ago, after Lamour dropped out, Fahey was anointed WADA’s “president-designate” by Australia’s sports minister, which didn’t sit well with Fahey.

“That was a cause of consternation,” Fahey said. “I take the view that there is still an election ... but it is difficult to see where I can’t be elected.”

He said he’s aware of the criticism that has come out of Europe since Lamour dropped out.

“I can’t deny in discussions with a number of European (sports) ministers that there is some level of concern about the fact that they anticipated or expected that the president to be a European,” Fahey said. “But that’s not my fault that a candidate withdrew.”

International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge, who had a strong relationship with Lamour, offered a cautious endorsement of Fahey.

While conceding that the WADA succession “could have been a bit more orderly,” Rogge said the Olympic movement should back Fahey in the face of some European reluctance.

“John Fahey deserves to have the time to show his credentials,” he said. “He’s an intelligent man, he’s new to the sports movement and fight against doping. He deserves the chance to show his capacities and will be judged on how he performs. I will give him the benefit of having time to come into his role.”

Fahey prefers not to discuss his plans for WADA -- “it’s still premature, there is a still a president there,” but says he’s looking forward to adopting a tougher WADA code that will be introduced next week in Madrid.

“It will bring the fight against drugs in sport to a new level,” Fahey said. “It provides new weaponry, and that’s in everyone’s interest.”

When Fahey, a lawyer, takes over, he won’t relocate to Canada. He’s currently a part-time senior advisor for an international investment bank in Sydney, mostly working three days a week and commuting to his home about a 90-minute drive south of the city.

“I’m sure (WADA) will require my attention almost daily -- thank God for telecommunications,” Fahey said. “But there is a team of professionals in Montreal who are there all the time.”

Fahey’s ties with Sydney were never more evident than in 1993, when, as chairman of the committee bidding to bring the Olympics to Australia, he leapt high in the air when Juan Antonio Samaranch, then the IOC president, announced the winning vote for the 2000 Games.

“I guess I didn’t think about it at the time ... but the footage is there,” Fahey said from a 32nd-floor bank boardroom with sweeping views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.

“I think it’s fair to say that there was enormous tension and that release of tension was a moment of my life that I will never forget

Less than a year later -- in January 1994 -- Fahey thwarted an attack on Prince Charles, tackling a man after two shots were fired from a starter’s pistol during an Australia Day ceremony at Sydney’s Darling Harbour.

“My wife warned me, ‘There is a man running towards us with a gun’, and almost at that point the gun went off,” said Fahey, who didn’t know it was a starter’s pistol incapable of firing live ammunition.

“I have no idea what possessed me to run at him. I just knew that he had to be overpowered before he did some damage ... he was clearly seeking to take out the heir to the British throne.”

Fahey, then premier of New South Wales, went on to become Australia’s finance minister, but quit politics when he developed lung cancer in 2001.

“I’m just lucky,” Fahey said. “In my case it was a pretty lethal cancer. It was a pretty horrible time and a horrible prognosis. After I had one lung removed, the doctor said I had only a one-in-four chance of surviving until Christmas.”

To help his odds, the former rugby league player decided to remove as much stress from his life as possible, and that meant leaving politics.

“Politics is life and death, at least in your mind,” Fahey said. “I never turned off for 18 years. Now I’ve got a philosophical approach: I do everything I can as well as I can.”

That includes new duties taking his 8-year-old granddaughter, Amber, and 6-year-old grandson, Campbell, back and forth to school. Fahey and his wife, Colleen, whom he married in 1968, have become full-time parents to youngsters again following the death in a car accident last Dec. 26 of their daughter Tiffany, a single mother who had fought a long battle with drug addiction.

“We had a dreadful time last Christmas,” Fahey said. “(Our grandchildren) actually take our minds off it a bit. We constantly have to think about today and tomorrow instead of yesterday. They give us enormous joy.”

The Faheys also have two other grown children.

Despite his domestic duties, Fahey, who was born in New Zealand but moved to Australia when he was 10, didn’t think twice about taking on the WADA presidency.

“Life is about opportunities and challenges, and there is clearly a challenge here,” Fahey said. “If we can’t remove cheating in sport, then sport dies. That would be a tragedy.”