WADA criticises US for undermining anti-doping efforts

LONDON: The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) continued to vigorously defend its handling of a drugs case involving 23 Chinese swimmers on Friday while taking direct aim at the United States for trying to undermine the global anti-doping effort.

Following a New York Times report last month detailing events that led to Chinese swimmers avoiding sanctions after testing positive for a banned substance weeks before the Tokyo Olympics, WADA has been fending off criticism and accusations of a cover-up.

But during an extraordinary virtual meeting of its Foundation Board on Friday, WADA blasted its most vocal critic, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and the organisation’s chief Travis Tygart as hypocrites.

Canadian Dick Pound, who established WADA in 1999, came to his organisation’s defence, accusing Tygart of lies and distortions and suggesting USADA’s claims were politically motivated.

“On behalf of WADA, I am deeply disappointed and disgusted by the deliberate, lies and distortions coming from USADA, including that WADA has swept doping cases in China under the rug,” said Pound, a former IOC member.

“That accusation, bereft of any truth, has but a single purpose to deliberately damage the reputation of WADA.

“To claim that WADA has in some way inappropriately favoured China is completely false,” Pound added.

“USADA is financed by the United States government, that government currently has a chilly relationship with China’s government. Could there be a connection?”

WADA has stood firm against criticism, arguing that it followed rules and procedures laid out in the anti-doping code and had no evidence to challenge China’s findings.

The swimmers avoided sanctions after an investigation by Chinese authorities ruled the positive tests were the result of being inadvertently exposed to the drug through contamination.

A report determined all the swimmers who tested positive were staying at the same hotel where traces of trimetazidine (TMZ), which is found in heart medication, were discovered in the kitchen.