The US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) has stated that it “fully supports” the US government’s decision to withhold a $3.6m (£2.8m) payment to the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) in light of the organisation’s handling of a major doping scandal.
News emerged in April 2024 that 23 Chinese swimmers were cleared to compete at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 despite having tested positive for a banned heart medication – called trimetazidine – in the preceding months.
The country’s own anti-doping agency determined that the athletes had ingested the substance unintentionally, with Wada later saying that it was “not in a position to disprove” this claim.
Usada chief executive Travis Tygart made a statement on the refusal of the payment, claiming that it was “the only right choice to protect athletes’ rights, accountability and fair competition”.
He added that Wada “left the US with no other option after failing to deliver on several very reasonable requests, such as an independent audit of [its] operations, to achieve the transparency and accountability needed”.
Wada responded to this statement by saying that US representatives will now be unable to sit on either its foundation board or executive committee.
At the time of the scandal emerging, Wada said that it had been caught up in “geopolitical tensions” between the two countries, with an independent investigation later finding that the agency had not mishandled the case, nor had it shown any bias towards Chinese swimmers.
Tygart’s statement added: “Since the exposure of Wada’s failed handling of the 23 Chinese swimmers’ positive tests that gave China and its athletes special treatment under the rules, many stakeholders from around the world – including athletes, governments and National Anti-Doping Agencies – have sought answers, transparency and accountability from Wada leadership.
“Because Wada failed to uniformly enforce the global rules in place to protect the integrity of competition and athletes’ rights to fairness, significant reform at Wada must occur to ensure this never happens again.”
The US has been the highest-funding government partner of Wada since the agency’s inception in 2000, and the country will host the next Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
