The US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) says it “fully supports” the US government’s decision to withhold a payment of $3.6 million (£2.8 million) from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The payment is withheld in a dispute over how to handle the doping controversy of Chinese swimmers.
It was revealed in April that 23 Chinese swimmers had been allowed to compete in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, even though they had tested positive for a prohibited substance months prior to the competition.
Travis Tygart, USADA’s chief executive, said that withholding the funds was “the only right choice to protect athletes’ rights, accountability and fair competition”. He added that WADA “left the US with no other option after failing to deliver on several very reasonable requests, such as an independent audit of [its] operations, to achieve the transparency and accountability needed”.
In response, the global anti-doping agency announced that US officials would no longer be allowed to serve on its executive committee or foundation board.
The doping scandal
WADA stated in April that it was “not in a position to disprove” a claim made by the China Anti-Doping Agency that the athletes accidentally consumed the performance-enhancing cardiac drug trimetazidine (TMZ).
This upset Western anti-doping organizations and athletes. USADA alleged a cover-up, which WADA rejected as “completely false and defamatory”.
It said it had been caught in “the middle of geopolitical tensions” between the US and China. An independent review concluded that WADA did not show bias towards the Chinese swimmers or mishandle the situation.
Tygart said: “Since the exposure of WADA’s failed handling of the 23 Chinese swimmers’ positive tests that gave China and its athletes special treatment under the rules, many stakeholders from around the world – including athletes, governments and National Anti-Doping Agencies – have sought answers, transparency and accountability from WADA leadership.”
He added: “Because WADA failed to uniformly enforce the global rules in place to protect the integrity of competition and athletes’ rights to fairness, significant reform at WADA must occur to ensure this never happens again.”
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy was subsequently given the authority to reduce funds after US legislators accused WADA of improperly investigating the doping scandal. The US has been WADA’s largest government financing partner since 2000, and the country will host the 2026 Men’s World Cup and the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, two of the world’s most important athletic events.
WADA confirmed in a statement that “it did not receive the agreed contribution to [its] 2024 budget from the government of the US by the deadline of 31 December 2024”, and it also said that the overall budget for 2025 was $57.5 million (£46.5 million).
Source: BBC