Controversy testing for feuding agencies

Three months before the Paris Olympics, a simmering distrust between the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) and its US counterpart has exploded into allegations of selective policing and a volley of scorching statements, raising uncomfortable questions about how strongly doping is being controlled at the Games.

United States Anti-Doping Agency President Travis Tygart has gone on the offensive, questioning the commitment and motivations of global anti-doping leaders.

“All of those with dirty hands in burying positive tests and suppressing the voices of courageous whistleblowers must be held accountable to the fullest extent of the rules and law,” Tygart said in a statement, prompting a similarly vehement response from Wada.

“Mr Tygart’s allegations are politically motivated and delivered with the intention of undermining Wada’s work to protect clean sport around the world,” the agency wrote, adding that it would send Tygart’s statement to its legal counsel.

None of the rage fully clarified the revelations contained in reports that the 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for trimetazidine at the end of 2020 were never so much as identified publicly. Thirteen of those swimmers competed in the Olympics, according to the reports, and won several medals, including three golds.

In a 100-minute video news conference yesterday, Wada officials acknowledged the tests and said they accepted explanations from China’s anti-doping agency, Chinada, that investigators had found traces of trimetazidine in the exhaust and sink drains of the kitchen at a hotel where the swimmers had been staying.

Former Wada chief investigator Jack Robertson found the contamination explanation implausible.

“How can a heart medicine, in pill form, possibly accidentally find its way into hotel food?” Robertson said. “And at quantities to cause 20-plus athletes to test positive?

“The likelihood just doesn’t compute. Did these athletes all eat the same dish? Not likely. Did TMZ contaminate multiple food dishes? Not likely. And China has a history of TMZ doping. Are we to accept the investigative result of the Chinese authorities and government?”

– Washington Post