The World Anti-Doping Agency reiterated on Thursday that its handling of a contamination case involving Chinese athletes was fair and appropriate, and urged the United States anti-doping authorities to keep up with international rules.
On the eve of the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the international anti-doping regulator called a high-profile news conference to defend its integrity, legality and consistency in adhering to the global anti-doping code in its handling of a case involving 23 Chinese swimmers being contaminated by a banned substance in 2021.
The agency has again strongly denied groundless accusations made by some media outlets and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that it helped "cover up" intentional doping in the case.
Witold Banka, president of WADA, called on the U.S. authorities to focus more on taking care of their business back home by ensuring that the country's domestic anti-doping efforts stayed in line with international regulations and the global anti-doping code.
"Everything was in line with the regulations and with the code to appoint an independent prosecutor (to review the case involving Chinese athletes)," Banka said at the Main Press Centre in Paris, in response to questions on how the regulator handled the case.
"The conclusion (of the independent prosecutor's report) couldn't be any clearer that WADA didn't show any bias toward China, or any interference, or other impropriety in its assessment of the China Anti-Doping Agency's decision.
"It's very important that WADA's decision not to appeal the case in the Court of Arbitration for Sport was indisputably reasonable," he added.
An investigation by the China Anti-Doping Agency proved that the 23 swimmers, who tested positive for trimetazidine during a national championship in January 2021, had ingested the drug unwittingly after being inadvertently exposed to it at a hotel. Therefore, their tests returned positive for an "extremely low concentration" of the banned substance.
After thoroughly probing the case, and supported by external consultations, both World Aquatics, the international governing body for swimming, and WADA agreed to the China Anti-Doping Agency's conclusion that it was a contamination incident and decided not to appeal the ruling.
No athletes involved in the incident were held accountable for intentional doping violations, and neither were any suspensions imposed.
Olivier Niggli, director-general of WADA, said at the news conference that any concrete evidence regarding the case is welcome, but indicated that new leads claimed by some media had turned out to be "hearsay" rather than verified facts.
"We never said that we would not look at new evidence. But are we talking about evidence, or are we talking about other things?" Niggli said. "We never said we would not reopen or look at whatever new evidence has come up, if there is anything that can be called evidence that is given to us.... I mean, there's a difference between evidence and hearsay."
Stating that 90 percent of U.S. athletes competing in the country's collegiate sports system and in major professional leagues in North America are not monitored under the WADA system, Banka urged the U.S. anti-doping authorities to bring U.S. athletes under WADA's scope in compliance with international rules.
"This is a serious issue we raised many times in our statements. I think this issue has to be addressed, and it's the USADA's responsibility," Banka said.
"In accordance with the data published by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee ... 75 percent of current American Olympians participating in the Olympic Games in Paris are coming from this system (which is isolated from the WADA code and regulations). So definitely there is a gap in the U.S. anti-doping system," he added.
According to the International Testing Agency, an independent body that delivers anti-doping programs, nearly 90 percent of all athletes competing in the Paris Olympics have been tested at least once this year as part of a pre-Games program, and among them, Chinese athletes have completed the tests more regularly.
World Aquatics also confirmed that Chinese swimmers competing in Paris have been tested "on average 21 times each since January 1" and no positive results have been reported, compared with only six times for each U.S. athlete, five for each Italian athlete, and four for each Australian, British and French athlete.
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