WADA to put US anti-doping agency under compliance review: Why US risks losing 2028 and 2034 Olympics?

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) will take the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) to the Independent Compliance Review Committee next month, WADA told Reuters, a landmark move that could jeopardise the country hosting the 2028 and 2034 Olympics. WADA is taking the step as a result of a dispute with USADA over its handling of a case involving 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned substance in 2021.

The move would be the first time WADA has taken the US anti-doping body to the Independent Compliance Review Court (CRC) and could come with huge implications for global sport given the US’s outsized commercial influence.

Any country wanting to compete in or stage an international sporting event must be compliant with the anti-doping code, meaning if the review went against the US it would have to forfeit participating in and hosting the Olympics. They are due to host the Summer Games in Los Angeles in 2028 and the 2034 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

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The move comes amid growing tension between WADA and USADA over the Chinese swimmers’ case which erupted in April when the New York Times and German broadcaster ARD reported that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for banned heart medication trimetazidine (TMZ) at a training camp in 2021 but still competed at the Tokyo Olympics later that year.

WADA confirmed that 23 tested positive but said it accepted the findings of a Chinese investigation that the results were due to contamination from a hotel kitchen the team were staying at. The case was not made public at the time.

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USADA chief Travis Tygart has publicly accused WADA of a cover-up over its handling of the case, and in May a US House of Representatives committee called on the Department of Justice to launch inquiries ahead of the Paris Olympics into the doping case that has rocked swimming.

American law enforcement has now taken up the case and could take action against the swimmers using the Rodchenkov Act.

World Aquatics confirmed last week that its executive director Brent Nowicki has been subpoenaed by the US government to testify in an investigation into how the Chinese swimmers escaped punishment after testing positive.

The Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act passed in 2020 is named after Grigory Rodchenkov who led Russia’s state doping programme before turning whistle blower. The Act allows criminal charges to be brought against those found to have committed anti-doping rule violations.

The Act legislation extends US law enforcement jurisdiction to any international sporting competitions that involve American athletes or have financial connections to the United States.

WADA chief Witold Banka said on Wednesday that the US was taking a unilateral approach to anti-doping rules that risked undermining global rules.

USADA said in a statement to Reuters that WADA’s move to take the US to the CRC was retaliatory.

“First we have heard about it and if accurate, WADA is continuing the retaliation on those asking for answers from them for allowing China to sweep 23 positive cases under the rug,” USADA head Travis Tygart said in the statement.

“They’re (WADA) running scared instead of being transparent and I guess we will see how independent the CRC is or is not. The whole system is crumbling under this WADA leadership and clean athletes deserve better.”

An independent investigation by a Swiss prosecutor this month ruled WADA did not mishandle or show favouritism while a World Aquatics audit concluded there was no mismanagement or cover-up by the governing body.