Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time, has suggested that the entire future of the Games is at stake following the World Anti-Doping Agency’s handling of Chinese swimmers whose positive tests were not disclosed in 2021.
Testifying before a US Congressional sub-committee on Tuesday evening, Phelps called for reforms and accused Wada of succumbing “to the pressures of international sport to do the expedient at the expense of the athlete”.
“Honestly, if we continue to let this slide any farther, the Olympic Games might not even be there,” he said.
It emerged earlier this year that a group of 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for trace amounts of the banned substance trimetazidine prior to the Tokyo Olympics. Trimetazidine is a heart drug which can increase blood flow and improve performance. Their test results were not publicly disclosed at the time and the athletes were not sanctioned after China’s anti-doping authority attributed the findings to contamination. This explanation was accepted by Wada.
Phelps, who won 23 Olympic golds between 2004 and 2016, said that “close friends” had been potentially impacted. “Many of them will live with the ‘what ifs’ for the rest of their lives,” Phelps said. “As athletes, our faith can no longer be blindly placed in the World Anti-Doping Agency, an organisation that continuously proves that it is either incapable or unwilling to enforce its policies consistently around the world.
“It is clear to me that any attempts of reform at Wada have fallen short, and there are still deeply rooted systemic problems that prove detrimental to the integrity of international sports and athletes’ right to fair competition, time and time again.”
Also appearing at the hearing was Allison Schmitt, a winner of four Olympic gold medals, who was in the US team that finished second behind China in the women’s 4x200m relay in Tokyo.
“We respected their performance and accepted our defeat,” Schmitt said. “We raced hard. We trained hard. We followed every protocol. We accepted our defeat with grace. Many of us will be haunted by this podium finish that may have been impacted by doping.
“I plead, on behalf of US athletes: hold Wada and the global anti-doping system accountable. If we win, let it be because we earned it. And if we lose, let it be because the competition was fair.
“We need the International Olympic Committee, NBC, sponsors, and fans to demand integrity in our sport.”
Travis Tygart, the chief executive of the US Anti-Doping Agency, suggested that future funding of Wada should come with a condition of reform. Wada President Witold Bańka had declined an invitation to appear before the congressional committee.
In a statement, Wada stressed that it governed the anti-doping system across almost 200 countries and said that it would be “inappropriate to be pulled into a political debate before a US congressional committee regarding a case from a different country, especially while an independent review into WADA’s handling of the case is ongoing”.
Bańka added: “Today’s congressional hearing focused on pushing out more misinformation regarding the contamination case from 2021 involving 23 swimmers from China, and causing further damage to Wada’s reputation and that of the global anti-doping system.
“Unfortunately, there persists a narrative from some in the US suggesting that Wada somehow acted inappropriately or showed bias towards China, despite there being no evidence to support that theory.
“Wada understands the tense relationship that exists between the governments of China and US and has no mandate to be part of that. It is not appropriate for anti-doping to be politicised in this way.”
Wada said that the Chinese swimming case was not one of doping but a “no-fault, environmental contamination”. It said that World Aquatics had come to the same conclusion based on its examination of the same case file. It also rejected calls for the case files to be released more widely, arguing that it would set a “dangerous precedent”.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach has said he has “full confidence” in Wada. A spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry said that the country had “consistently adhered to the firm stance of zero tolerance for doping”.
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