Sir Craig Reedie: Former BOA and Wada executive dies aged 84
Sir Craig Reedie, former president of the British Olympic Association (BOA) and chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), has died at the age of 84.
Reedie became Wada’s third president from 2014 to 2019, after chairing the BOA from 1992 to 2005.
As BOA president, he was involved in London’s successful bid for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and served as director of the organizing committee for both events.
He also served as a board member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) between 2009 and 2012, and as vice president between 2012 and 2016.
Dame Katherine Grainger, current president of the BOA, said: “If you worked in Olympic sport you probably knew Sir Craig Reedie. How lucky we all were.”
“Few knew the Olympic movement better, and still fewer served it with this distinction. His dedicated service to the BOA, the IOC and Wada is remarkable.
“He always fought hard for Olympic sport and fought even harder for clean sport. In doing so he saw the good and inevitably the bad of our sports system.
“It was a measure of how Craig never diminished his love of sport, and especially the Olympic movement.”
Reedie was an international badminton player who represented Great Britain in the 1960s and later led the Scottish Badminton Association.
In 1981 he was elected president of the International Badminton Federation, where he led a successful campaign to include badminton in the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona.
He chaired Wada during the revelations of Russia’s state-sponsored doping, which led to the country’s athletes being banned from competing under their national flag.
“Sir Craig has dedicated his whole life to serving sport and the Olympic Movement,” IOC president Kirsty Coventry said.
“He was a steadfast guardian of integrity, guiding the global sports community with dignity and determination through some of its most challenging moments.
“His contribution to the Olympic Games, clean sport and the development of world-class athletes will last for generations to come.”
Reedie was appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1999, was knighted as a Knight Bachelor in 2006, and was later upgraded to Knight Grand Cross (GBE) in 2018.
