Feud Flares Between U.S. and Global Antidoping Agency
Since the World Anti-Doping Agency first came under scrutiny this spring for its handling of positive tests for banned substances by nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers, the United States has been the agency’s chief critic.
Congress has threatened to cut funding for the agency, which is known as WADA. The Justice Department and F.B.I. have opened criminal investigations into how the tests were handled. And the head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency and American swimmers have raised doubts about whether WADA can be trusted to do its job.
On Wednesday, WADA launched its latest counterattack on the Americans, accusing the United States Anti-Doping Agency, known as USADA, of doing the same thing it has accused WADA of: failing to strictly follow the rules when an athlete tests positive for a banned drug.
In a lengthy statement, WADA said that USADA had gone against the global antidoping code a decade ago by allowing athletes who had been doping to continue competing.
WADA acknowledged a wrinkle in the case — that the athletes in question were allowed to keep competing so they could work undercover to help authorities with a criminal investigation — but said it did not matter because the U.S. agency was still bound to follow the rules and had failed to get WADA’s approval.
“In one case, an elite level athlete, who competed at Olympic qualifier and international events in the United States, admitted to taking steroids and EPO yet was permitted to continue competing all the way up to retirement,” WADA said, referring to two categories of banned drugs. “Their case was never published, results never disqualified, prize money never returned and no suspension ever served. The athlete was allowed to line up against their unknowing competitors as if they had never cheated.”
WADA released its statement after Reuters reported that WADA and USADA were at odds over the cases, which date back to 2011 and 2014.
The American agency responded by saying that not only had WADA been aware of what happened, but that the two agencies had worked together on the matter. USADA said that the athletes who cooperated had been aiding a human and drug trafficking investigation by the F.B.I. and the Drug Enforcement Administration and that their cases had been handled within the rules.
“It is sad to see WADA leaders’ desperate and dangerous attempts to smear others, including informants, instead of answering basic questions about why they allowed China to cover up 23 positive tests for TMZ and two positive tests for metandienone,” Travis Tygart, the head of USADA, said, referring to banned substances found in the Chinese swimmers.
“Now, as athletes from around the world are speaking out about these failures that impacted the Paris Olympic swimming event, WADA responds by lashing out against others,” Mr. Tygart said. “Clean athletes deserve answers, and they deserve better from WADA.”
The back and forth demonstrated the deepening divisions in the global antidoping movement in the wake of a report by The New York Times in April about the positive tests among the Chinese swimmers. WADA and national bodies like USADA are supposed to work together to ensure a level playing field at the Olympics. And the claim by WADA was the latest flashpoint between the United States and WADA as the scandal over the positive tests continues to hover over the Olympics.
One of the most dramatic examples of the tension occurred last month when the International Olympic Committee gave the 2034 Winter Olympics bid to Salt Lake City. As a condition of giving the Games to the city, local and state officials agreed to a condition: They would work to help limit the role of the U.S. in policing doping around the world and avoid challenging the authority of WADA. The I.O.C. said it could award the 2034 Games to another city if the American investigations continued.
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