On 29 May 2025, Montreal (Canada) based World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)’s Foundation Board, in a virtual meeting, re-elected Witold Banka as independent President, and Yang Yang as Vice President (VP), for a third and final three-year term.
- Their tenure will begin on January 1, 2026, till December 31, 2028.
- Witold Banka received 36 votes in favour, Yang Yang was unanimously selected.
About Witold Banka:
i.Witold Banka represented Poland in the 400 metres (m) sprint from 2005 to 2012.
ii.He received bronze medal in the 4x400m relay at the 2007 World Athletics Championships in Osaka, Japan.
iii.Post retirement, he embarked on his political career and was appointed as Minister of Sports and Tourism of Poland in 2015.
iv.In 2017, he became the European representative on WADA’s Executive Committee.
v.Witold Banka was elected in May 2019 and assumed office of WADA president on January 1, 2020.
About Yang Yang:
i.Yang Yang is a former Chinese short track speed skater, known for being China’s first Winter Olympics gold medalist in 2002. Yang won 2 gold medals in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City for 500- and 1,000-metre individual events and 1 silver medal in 3,000 metres relay.
ii.In Winter Olympics She secured silver medal in the 1998 Nagano Games for the 3,000-metre relay, bronze medal for 1,000-metre individual event in the 2006 Turin Games.
iii. she also won 32 world titles in seven years, becoming the first speed skater to win six overall short track world titles, which she won consecutively from 1997 to 2002 including 28 gold medals at World Championships.
iv.Following her retirement in 2006, Yang contributed to various commissions as Member of International Olympic Committee (IOC) from 2010 to 2018.
v.She became the first female council member of the International Skating Union (ISU) in 2016. In 2017, she became the Chairperson of the Athelete’s Commission for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
vi.In 2020, Yang Yang became the Vice President of WADA, becoming the first Chinese to hold the position.
About WADA:
i.World Anti-Doping Agency, an international independent agency composed and funded equally by the sport movement and governments of the world.
ii.Its key activities include scientific research, education, development of anti-doping capacities, and monitoring of the WADA (Code)
About the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA):
President – Witold Banka
Headquarters – Montreal, Canada
Founded – 10 November 1999
