Sports
An Olympic-sized fight has erupted among anti-doping officials, and it’s just getting started
The stream of threats, recriminations and anti-doping innuendo flowed freely again on Thursday when tensions over a US law designed to combat drugs in sports escalated on the eve of the Paris Olympics.
It’s a fight that’s been simmering for a decade, sparked by Russia’s brazen doping scandal at the Sochi Olympics.
The reaction from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and International Olympic Committee (IOC) was criticised as too weak by many, including the United States. So much so, that the US passed a law in 2020 giving federal authorities power to investigate sports doping and cover-ups.
After details emerged about 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned substance — Chinese authorities blamed it on contamination from a hotel kitchen — but none were suspended and some went on to win medals at the Tokyo Olympics, the US launched an investigation.
ABC Sport is live blogging every day of the Paris Olympics
The latest round of backlash played out in a trio of news conferences in Paris, the highlight of which came when leaders at WADA suggested they might sanction one of their biggest critics, the US Anti-Doping Agency, over the law.
“As a global regulator, one of our duties is to make sure our stakeholders are following our regulations and rules, and that the national legislation is in accordance with the world anti-doping code,” WADA president Witold Banka explained.
While some tried to calm things down, others could see a worst-case scenario: that the US not be allowed to host big-time events such as the Olympics in the future.
Banka’s statement came a day after the IOC awarded the 2034 Winter Games to Salt Lake City, but cast a pall over that celebration by extracting a promise that organisers pressure US lawmakers to scuttle the law, along with a related investigation into the Chinese doping case.
A law that passed unanimously
Chances of that are slim — the American Congress passed that bill in 2020 without a dissenting vote — so another strategy would be to go after the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
If WADA determines the law, called the Rodchenkov Act, doesn’t adhere to the rules, it could start the process of finding USADA in noncompliance.
That, in turn, could trigger sanctions, which can jeopardise America’s ability to host international events. It’s the same treatment WADA handed to Russia’s anti-doping agency during that country’s long-running drug scandal.
Congress recently held a hearing about the Chinese doping scandal and there have been suggestions that the US government might withhold its annual funding from WADA.
The chair and ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee — Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Frank Pallone Jr — released a statement.
“It speaks volumes that the IOC would demand a one-sided contract condition to protect WADA rather than work together to ensure it is fulfilling its mission to protect clean sport,” they said.
Threatening USADA
The mere threat of putting USADA on a noncompliant list marks the latest broadside in a mushrooming exchange of rhetoric.
USADA’s CEO, Travis Tygart struck back.
“You know it’s a broken system when WADA … threatens a compliance case against USADA for a US law enacted by Congress that has cleaned up sport consistent with the WADA rules and has been in existence for several years,” he said.
At his own news conference in Paris, US Olympics and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) chair Gene Sykes, who was just made a member of the IOC, said he hopes this pattern of “throwing rocks at each other” would calm down soon.
“I think the tempers between WADA and USADA as reflected in the statements that go back and forth between the two of them are unfortunately just too emotional,” Sykes said.
Some athletes, including Caeleb Dressel, don’t trust the system
World Aquatics, which runs swimming, held its own news conference, where swimmers and executives were asked about the Chinese case.
American swimmer Caeleb Dressel was asked if he had confidence in the anti-doping system.
“No. Not really.” Dressel said.
“I don’t really think they’ve given us enough evidence to support them in how this case was handled.”
A few seats away was World Aquatics executive director Brent Nowicki who recently received a subpoena from US investigators as part of their probe into the China case.
“We have to regain his trust and those athletes’ trust who share that same opinion,” Nowicki said.
“I’d like you to ask that same question of Caeleb in LA (at the 2028 Olympics). My hope, my goal, is that his mind changes.”
Some IOC leaders worried about travelling to the US
The Nowicki subpoena is part of the first known use of the Rodchenkov Act for an international incident.
It illustrates the wide net US investigators might cast to fight doping — wide enough that it seems some folks are avoiding the United States, altogether. For instance, WADA moved a conference it had planned after the Olympics from New York to Montreal.
“I don’t think I would share my private travel schedule in a press conference,” WADA director general Olivier Niggli said, drawing laughs, when asked if he had plans to visit the US.
The law was passed to allow American authorities to prosecute doping conspiracies in any sports event involving US athletes — which includes the Olympics and pretty much every major competition around the world.
WADA has long lobbied against this law, specifically its “extraterritorial” clause, which it says gives US authorities a separate and inappropriate role in enforcing anti-doping rules against foreigners.
“It’s highly incorrect that one country tries to impose jurisdiction on anti-doping decisions on the rest of the world,” Banka said.
None of this was on the radar of leaders in Salt Lake City, who came to Paris expecting a celebration, and maybe even a pat on the back for offering to host the Winter Games — an event cities aren’t lining up to underwrite anymore.
Salt Lake City organising president Fraser Bullock said despite the language in the contract “in my mind, there’s zero doubt” that Utah will host the Games, as promised.
“For us, we feel bad that we did get pulled into it,” Bullock said.
“But we understand that’s an issue that has to be addressed. It’s just very unfortunate timing.”
What is WADA?
The World Anti-Doping Agency was formed after the International Olympic Committee called for changes in the wake of some of sports’ most sordid drug-cheating episodes — among them, Ben Johnson’s drug-tainted ouster from the Seoul Games in 1988 and a doping scandal at the 1998 Tour de France.
Canadian lawyer Richard Pound, a heavyweight in the Olympic movement, became WADA’s founding president in 1999, launching the agency one year ahead of the Sydney Olympics.
Who funds and runs WADA?
In 2024, the Montreal-based agency has a budget of about $US53 million ($81 million). The IOC’s contribution of $US25 million ($37 million) is matched by the collective contributions of national governments worldwide.
Some say the IOC’s 50 per cent contribution gives it too much say in WADA’s decision-making and a chance to run roughshod over the way it runs its business.
The power of governments is diluted because several dozen countries make up the other half of the funding, with no single nation accounting for much more than about 3 per cent of the budget.
What does WADA do?
The agency describes its mission as to “develop, harmonise and coordinate anti-doping rules and policies across all sports and countries.”
It does not collect and test urine and blood samples from athletes. It does certify the sports bodies, national anti-doping agencies and worldwide network of testing laboratories that do.
It drafts, reviews and updates the rules that govern international sports and manages the list of prohibited substances.
WADA also runs its own investigations and intelligence unit, which has broad scope to get involved in cases worldwide.
WADA v The IOC
An IOC vice president, Craig Reedie, was WADA’s leader in 2016 when the Russian doping scandal erupted weeks before the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Reedie and Pound, who had led a key investigation of the Russian cheating system, wanted Russia out of the Rio Olympics. IOC President Thomas Bach did not.
At a heated IOC meeting in Rio, Bach won a near-unanimous vote that allowed Russia to compete. It was a severe undercutting of Reedie and, some say, WADA.
What is the Rodchenkov Act?
American authorities were upset with the IOC and WADA handling of the Russian case, so they moved to pass a law named after Grigory Rodchenkov, the former Moscow lab director who became a whistleblower and eventually fled to the United States as a protected witness.
The Rodchenkov Act gave the US government authority to investigate “doping conspiracies” in sports events that involve US athletes, which brings the Olympics and most international events under its umbrella.
It agitated WADA and IOC officials, who don’t want the US enforcing its own anti-doping code. They lobbied against it, but in a sign of WADA’s standing in the United States, the bill passed without a single dissenting vote in 2020.
Why is this coming up now?
Earlier this month, US authorities issued a subpoena to an international swimming official who could have information about the case involving Chinese swimmers who were allowed to compete despite testing positive. WADA did not pursue the case.
With the Summer Games coming to Los Angeles in 2028, then the Winter Games in Utah in 2034, it will be hard for world sports leaders to avoid coming to the US, where they, too, could face inquiries from law enforcement.
AP/ABC
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