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I2021, On the eve of the Tokyo Olympics, 23 top Chinese swimmers tested positive for the drug trimetazidine. In appropriate clinical settings, this drug is used to treat angina pectoris. But for athletes and coaches willing to cheat, it’s a drug that boosts heart muscle function and improves performance. The use of trimetazidine or his TMZ without a prescription is prohibited at all times, not just during competition. The default sanction for an athlete’s violation is her four-year suspension.
The tests, which caught so many members of China’s swimming team, were carried out under the auspices of the National Anti-Doping Agency, known as CHINADA. Each country participating in international competition has its own such agency, the United States has his USADA, which I belong to, and they all operate under the umbrella of the World Anti-Doping Agency. WADA is the ultimate authority and is responsible for ensuring that national bodies enforce the rules. But just before the 2021 Olympics began, China withdrew 23 violations and made a do-or-die conversation about accidental contamination in kitchens where athletes’ meals were prepared. And WADA simply accepted China’s ADA’s clearly dubious ruling.
WADA could not even make its decision public. It was only last month that the world was alerted by a whistleblower who pushed evidence of the scandal to the media. In response to this revelation, WADA issued a statement saying it was “not in a position to disprove the possibility that the contamination was the source of TMZ” and that “given the specific circumstances of the alleged contamination, the athletes… There will be no fault or fault.”
WADA’s oversight failures and lack of transparency are eroding fair competition, which continues to plague clean athletes around the world. Had WADA carried out its mission properly, China likely would have lost 13 of its top swimmers selected for the Tokyo Olympics. Instead, China won six medals in the pool, three of which were gold.
USADA is in the business of making sure American swimmers follow the rules and compete cleanly. As a result of WADA’s inaction, some of them could have lost their well-deserved podium spots in Tokyo. To make matters worse, the world body’s enforcement failures have left China’s anti-doping agency hostage to an evil regime, rendering it and the athletes it oversees pawns in a cynical geopolitical game of prestige and power. I was made into
What we are witnessing is a return to the bad old days of the Cold War. At the time, East Germany fraudulently attempted to demonstrate the superiority of National Socialism by systematically doping athletes. At the time, there was no international anti-doping movement, and East German cheating, although suspected, went largely undetected until several years later. By then, it was too late to seek justice. The harm done to both the health of athletes and the credibility of the sport at the time was lasting. There is now a World Anti-Doping Agency that polices international sport, but enforcement only works if the watchdog itself is unbiased, conflict-free, and effective. It is highly doubtful that there will be clean competition at this summer’s Paris Games.
I2008, I participated in the Beijing Olympics as a member of WADA’s independent observer mission. As the newly appointed Director of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, I am excited to serve as the WADA team’s vice chair and legal expert and am eager to do my part to protect the integrity of sport. I was there. There is no doubt that I was naive, but since that experience, one world, one dream A framed photo of the Beijing Games hangs on my office wall.
At the time, my high hopes for doping-free sport didn’t seem so naive. During Jacques Rogge’s time as president of the International Olympic Committee, WADA was at its peak in achieving a cheat-free Olympics. As a physician, Rogge understood the value of keeping sports fair, maintaining the health of participating athletes, and producing results and records that the public could trust. And he found willing partners in his WADA leaders at the time, David Howman and John Fahey. They were determined to make the anti-doping fight independent of politics.
Unfortunately, that has changed. Lately, I’ve been feeling a great need for a wall reminder of the sporting ideals of the Games. The Olympic movement is replete with examples of sports being hijacked for national and political purposes. And his WADA, the very agency charged with protecting clean competition, is involved in the political arena.
The scandal involving China is just the latest example of WADA’s failure to fulfill its mission. The erosion of national integrity and authority dates back to 2015, when Russian manipulation of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics was exposed. These tournaments were tainted by a state-sponsored doping program in which Moscow apparatchiks sabotaged testing protocols to conveniently erase harmful tests for their own doped athletes from the system. When Russia’s foreign minister complained to then-Secretary of State John Kerry about USADA’s “provocative anti-Russian demands,” it was clear that sports were being co-opted as a tool of realpolitik. Kerry supported my agency’s position that Russia must comply with WADA rules.
The evidence of Russian wrongdoing was irrefutable. His colleagues and I met with whistleblowers, including Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of the Russian Testing Institute, who had fled the country and sought asylum in the United States. USADA is closing its Russia investigation into claims from multiple athlete organizations, including WADA’s Athletes Commission, led by Olympian Becky Scott, and the IOC’s equivalent commission, led by fellow Olympian Claudia Boekel. Instead, he echoed calls for expansion. But WADA, in a now familiar pattern, did not listen and refused to pursue the matter.
Despite my personal appeal to the WADA Director General in March 2016, WADA remained unmoved by the cries of clean athletes. Let me be clear: these athletes have made great sacrifices and undergone years of rigorous training to participate in the Olympic Games. But when anti-doping agencies fail or aid cheating, they make a mockery of the Olympic movement. The dream of a clean athlete is shattered by the greed and deceit of those charged with protecting the purity of the Olympics.
The Sochi case showed that WADA’s hardline stance was short-sighted. In May 2016, just weeks after I filed my complaint with WADA, 60 minutes and new york times It broke the news and forced government agencies to take action. Congress held hearings on WADA’s failures because U.S. taxpayer dollars support the international anti-doping infrastructure, so it had the right to do so. Indeed, ironically, WADA successfully used its own inaction to argue for more funding.
The agency has pitched to international backers that it needs new investigative powers, more staff and a 60% increase in its budget from 2018 to 2025. Although the request was obtained, the US government also made every effort to establish WADA. responsible. The agency asserted its governing authority and made U.S. funding of WADA discretionary rather than mandatory.
Iprinciple, WADA’s job as a global regulator is not complex and simply requires applying rules to the facts without fear or favor. However, the pursuit of global power politics in sport is a systemic problem that subverts the concept of fair play, and WADA has been unable to effectively implement new tools. When WADA received notification of a Chinese swimmer’s positive test in 2021, WADA should have sanctioned the Chinese team for the violation.
In fact, the results of the post-test were revealed just months before Beijing was set to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. Therefore, if WADA had applied the rules correctly, both China and the IOC itself would have faced serious embarrassment. Instead, WADA chose to give preferential treatment to one country, a very powerful rising power that was already considered the favorite to host the next Olympic Games. Do you think for a moment that WADA would have missed burying these tests if they had come from small, poor countries in Africa or South America instead of China?
In 2019 and 2020, WADA received approximately $2 million from the Chinese government. On top of that Mandatory dues to government agencies in that country. In early 2023, WADA signed an undisclosed sponsorship agreement with Anta, China’s largest sporting goods manufacturer. Antosha also has a sponsorship agreement with the Chinese Swimming Federation. Although no evidence of quid pro quo has emerged, the additional payments and confidential sponsorship agreements, along with special treatment for doping violations, give WADA the impression of a detrimental conflict of interest.
Financial and political influence within WADA has undermined WADA’s credibility and called into question its impartiality and independence. As nations vie for supremacy on the world stage, success in sport, as military theorist Carl von Clausewitz said of war, becomes a challenge to “real political means, continued political exchange, and the ability to do the same by other means. There is a risk that it will result in “execution”. ” Not surprisingly, Russia and China are the most prominent offenders, with the resources and ability to bend the system to their will. But if given their way, other bad guys will follow their example.
Ultimately, WADA’s failure will damage the Olympics itself. Who would want to see an unfair race or a rigged event? The commercial organizations promoting the Olympics, including Olympic broadcaster NBC and multi-million dollar sponsors such as Visa, Airbnb and Coca-Cola, should be on guard. The value of their investment will decline along with the health of the competition. Olympic media and sponsor partners should act as a strong counterweight to WADA to ensure that WADA’s work is carried out properly and their interests are protected.
The very future of the Olympics is at stake, along with the Olympic spirit of friendship, respect and fair competition. Before those who claim to support the Olympic movement take decisive action, even in front of the eyes of Western countries and other democratic leaders at this summer’s Paris Games, doped athletes will replace clean competitors. How many medals will be stolen? If the Olympics are to become more than a competition between great powers, world leaders need to take action and resume their responsibility to support global anti-doping efforts. The spirit of fair sport depends on it.
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