WADA's Reedie defends Russian anti-doping reinstatement

World Anti-Doping Agency president Craig Reedie's message to all those angry athletes out there: What else did you want me to do?

The harshly criticized leader is defending the decision to reinstate Russia's suspended drug-fighting operation, calling it the best way to get much-needed doping data out of a country that manipulated the system to win Olympic medals.

In a conference call with reporters Monday, Reedie insisted that Russia's agreement to hand over samples and data that could corroborate up to 2,800 doping cases puts a hard deadline of Dec. 31 on a process that was going nowhere.

Athletes and anti-doping leaders are livid with Thursday's decision to reinstate RUSADA, but Reedie's response to them is simple: "I want to know what the alternatives are," he said.