Senate Subcommittee Criticizes ‘Stonewalling, Intimidation’ by WADA
A panel hosted by the United States Senate on Tuesday criticized the World Anti-Doping Agency for its handling of Chinese influence on the organization.
At a hearing before a subcommittee of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, senators in both parties criticized WADA over its handling of Chinese doping allegations and how influenced the organization is by Chinese money. Since the United States is one of the biggest funders of WADA, the legislature is using funding as a lever to apply pressure.
“WADA has failed to provide answers. All they have provided is threats, stonewalling and intimidation,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., the chair of the subcommittee. “My colleagues and I will not be silenced or intimidated.”
Tuesday’s hearing is one of several held this spring. On the panel were USADA head Travis Tygart; Olympic swimmer Katie McLaughlin; Rahul Gupta, the former director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy; and professor Dionne Koller, the director of the Center for Sport and Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law. WADA was invited to attend the hearing but declined.
The hearings are in support of Restoring Confidence in the World Anti-Doping Agency Act, which seeks to withhold funding of WADA. Blackburn is a co-sponsor of the bicameral bill.
Criticism of China has found bipartisan support, including from both the Biden and Trump administrations. The flashpoint was the 2024 revelation that China had cleared positive doping tests by 23 swimmers in early 2021, months before the Tokyo Olympics. Some of those swimmers went on to win medals at the Olympics that year. WADA assented to the Chinese Anti-Doping Association’s absolution of the swimmers.
McLaughlin, whose only Olympic medal came in Tokyo in the 800 freestyle relay behind the world-record Chinese team, delivered prepared remarks.
“I was taken aback and heartbroken, and I think I spent a lot of my career trusting in the powers that be, and it was really sad to find out that (WADA) is not someone who could be trusted,” she said.
“This China scandal is happening on the heels of the Russia state-sponsored doping scheme; it is no wonder why the world’s athletes are incensed again,” Tygart said. “How does WADA respond? Instead of acknowledging and fixing its failures, WADA has dug in to protect the Chinese and its backroom, secret decision-making process. If WADA had any legitimate answers, they would be here. This is the third time since this scandal arose that WADA has refused to testify before Congress.”
Tygart assailed the math behind the ruling of environmental contamination, testifying that athletes would’ve had to ingest 11 pounds or five kilograms of tainted beef to reach the concentrations of the drug trimetazidine (TMZ) in their blood.
“It’s unbelievable to think that Tinkerbell just showed up and sprinkled it all over the kitchen,” Tygart said.
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