Trust in WADA shaken
Controllers pilloried over mass doping allegations
April 22, 2024, 11:09 a.m
China is said to have won three Olympic gold medals thanks to athletes who tested positive for doping. The accusation is serious because the World Anti-Doping Agency knows of 23 Chinese people who tested positive, but does not sanction them. She defends her actions.
Sloppiness? Carelessness? Or even a cover-up of a doping scandal? The World Anti-Doping Agency is not letting the serious allegations slide. In a 737-word statement, WADA complains about “misleading and possibly defamatory media reports” – and threatens legal consequences in bold letters. There is a reason for the harsh reaction: the organization’s greatest asset, its credibility as a guardian of fair conditions in sport, has been put into considerable doubt three months before the Olympic Games in Paris.
However, the allegations are serious. According to joint research by the ARD doping editorial team, the “New York Times” and the Australian “Daily Telegraph”, 23 top Chinese swimmers tested positive before the 2021 Summer Olympics, but were not sanctioned. Three of them won Olympic gold in Tokyo.
The ARD doping editorial team relies on a Chinese investigation report, which is the basis for the research into the documentation “The China Files” forms. The report was officially written by China’s anti-doping agency CHINADA, but the Ministry of Public Security was listed as the investigating authority. According to the report, in January 2021, 23 of China’s top swimmers tested positive for the heart drug trimetazidine, which improves the energy and oxygen supply to muscle cells, at a competition in Shijiazhuang. The substance for which Russian figure skater Kamila Waliyeva was banned for four years in January, also at the instigation of WADA. 13 of the Chinese people who presumably tested positive still started at the 2021 Olympics and won medals in five competitions.
WADA defends decision
According to the report, the positive cases occurred due to contamination in a hotel kitchen, the banned substance entered their bodies without the athletes’ knowledge, and the athletes cannot be banned. The positive cases were entered into the official WADA reporting system two months late in March 2021, but were apparently not reported as anti-doping rule violations. In the meantime, the internal Chinese investigation took place. If there is a violation of the rules, a temporary ban usually takes effect immediately.
According to the research, WADA decided not to conduct its own investigation. She told ARD that, based on the analysis data, she saw “no basis” to “challenge the explanations of contamination” and referred, among other things, to low concentrations and fluctuating values. The world swimming association World Aquatics apparently had nothing to complain about either.
On Monday, WADA defended its waiver of sanctions: “The agency remains committed to the results of its scientific investigation and the legal decisions in this case.” All allegations in the matter have been examined, but there is insufficient evidence to initiate new investigations, the authority added. On Saturday, it said that due to the “extreme restrictions imposed by the COVID-related lockdown”, the agency was “not able” to conduct its investigations on site. For example, “independent experts” were consulted to check the contamination theory. WADA ultimately concluded “that it was unable to refute the possibility of contamination as a source of trimetazidine.”
“Knives in the back of all clean athletes”
The German Swimming Association (DSV) called for a “comprehensive review of all events and, if necessary, consequences”. The news from China is “worrying,” says competitive sports director Christian Hansmann in a DSV statement. Transparency is an “indispensable part of the anti-doping fight,” emphasized Hansmann.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser – who is also responsible for sport – said: “A few months before the Olympic Games, the suspicion of turning a blind eye or even covering it up must be comprehensively clarified as quickly as possible. If there is such a serious suspicion of doping, then it must be investigated independently the Wada will be examined.”
Travis Tygart, head of the US anti-doping agency USADA, spoke to the ARD doping editorial team about “shocking revelations” and a “knife in the back of all clean athletes”. On Saturday, he wrote in a USADA communiqué of a “cover-up” and called for sanctions against those responsible. WADA reacted, spoke of false accusations and announced legal action against Tygart.
He, in turn, countered that it was “disappointing to see WADA resorting to threats and scaremongering when confronted with a blatant violation of anti-doping regulations.” The facts remained the same, Tygart noted: “WADA failed to provisionally suspend the athletes, disqualify the results and publicly announce the positive results.” Günter Younger, WADA’s German director of intelligence and investigations, sees it differently: “WADA followed standard procedures at every stage and carefully investigated every tip and every lead in this matter.”