Today I have made a decision that perhaps has been a long time coming. A decision that I am certain of, but one that also fills me with disappointment and regret. Today I am resigning from the WADA Athlete Committee. 

Events over the past two years have fundamentally shaken my belief in an organisation that I felt initially served a great purpose in protecting the integrity of sport. Protecting clean athletes on their journey of pursuing their dreams. 

I do not feel that that WADA exists anymore. Too many political games (or machinations), too many conflicts and too much self-interest has led to too many bad decisions, compromises and broken promises. 

Most recently the biggest blow to athletes is the decision by WADA to ignore calls from its very own Athlete Committee for Russia to be banned from competing at the next Olympic and Paralympic Games, despite promising earlier this year to enforce the toughest sanctions available if the retrieved data from Moscow was found to be manipulated. WADA refused to publish its own Athlete Committee’s statement on its website. In fact, they have refused to publish our last few statements. 

I am a firm believer that all athletes have the right to an unfiltered voice. The concept of silencing athletes is one of reasons why we are seeing so much abuse in sport and it only serves to reinforce the imbalance of power. 

In 2016, WADA recommended a complete ban on Russian participation at the Olympics and Paralympics, based on the gravity of the evidence of fraud and corruption that was exposed. Now, and in light of even further revelations of more corruption, they are recommending a lesser sanction.

Many believe WADA could not withstand the pressure exerted on them by the International Olympic Committee and Russia, and now many are worried about what the future holds. I know for myself personally, I simply can no longer be a part of an organization that places politics over principle. 

I am a strong advocate for athletes’ rights and I have concern for every Russian Athlete that will be stuck in a system that is unlikely to change. But until Russian leadership is held accountable and feels the full brunt of their wrongdoings only then will we see a cultural change that will allow athletes the opportunity to choose the clean sport path.

Until then, Russia will continue to place athletes in a position where they have little or no opportunity to choose that path. As we saw following Rio and PyeongChang, Russian authorities will continue to celebrate their athletes’ victories inside the country and pretend nothing ever happened. 

I believe every athlete has the right to clean sport and in such an environment I don’t believe Russian athletes will have this choice. Yes, they will suffer in the short term with a blanket ban but in the long term we may be able contribute to a change of culture for the future young athletes. 

I was proud to work alongside the principled and strong WADA Athlete Chair Beckie Scott and I stand behind, now from afar, Ben Sandford, another principled athlete chair that will continue to fight for athletes’ rights. 

I hope WADA finds its way and athletes can one day have confidence in the global regulator; however, I don’t think we are there today. To every athlete, encourage you to use your voice for change. Every athlete deserves the right to choose clean sport.

• This media release was published by Victoria Aggar via Twitter on 12 December 2019. Click here for the original.