Explained: What is WADA, what do they do and what's their feud with US anti-doping officials

Paris: The feuding this week among officials in the Olympics, the anti-doping world and the United States government over eradicating drugs from sports is hardly new. They’ve been going at it for decades.

The tension reached a new level on the eve of the Paris Games when the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2034 Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City but inserted language in the contract demanding its leaders pressure the U.S. government to lobby against an anti-conspiracy law passed in 2020.

There’s virtually no chance that either the law will be overturned or that the IOC would pull the rug from Salt Lake City. Still, the rhetoric keeps flowing. A look at the main characters and issues:

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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 $53 million. The IOC’s contribution of $25 million is matched by the collective contributions of national governments worldwide.

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Some say the IOC’s 50% 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% of the budget.

What does WADA do?

The agency describes its mission as to “develop, harmonize 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 vs. 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 l aw 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 U.S. government authority to investigate “doping conspiracies” in sports events that involve U.S. athletes, which brings the Olympics and most international events under its umbrella.

It agitated WADA and IOC officials, who don’t want the U.S. 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, U.S. 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 U.S., where they, too, could face inquiries from law enforcement.