WADA Points to Contamination Case in U.S. as Precedent for Clearing Chinese Swimmers in 2021

By Riley Overend on SwimSwam

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) took nearly two hours on Monday to address allegations it mishandled a Chinese doping controversy in 2021, with general counsel Ross Wenzel pointing to a similar case on American soil back in 2014 as precedent.

WADA officials claimed they had no evidence to disprove Chinese authorities’ report that 23 elite swimmers’ positive tests for trimetazidine (TMZ) were caused by contamination in their hotel kitchen about seven months before the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. They cited strict COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in China as the reason why an on-the-ground investigation was impossible at the time. Wenzel estimated WADA’s chances of winning an appeal in front of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) were “close to zero.”

U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart is among those criticizing WADA for keeping the case hidden leading up to the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, going so far as to call it “a potential cover-up.” Wenzel did provide an update on whether WADA would seek legal action against Tygart and USADA for their statements, but he did seem to suggest that their response is hypocritical based on the past.

Wenzel noted “a case involving more than 10 athletes in the U.S. in 2014, but there are many other examples where there has been group contamination related to food or environment, where these cases have been closed without public disclosure because it has been accepted that these athletes were at no fault… This is not without precedent.”

Wenzel added that USADA appears to have flipped its stance on disclosing information about doping investigations where no fault was found.

“USADA, for instance, is one of the organizations that has been quite vocal that cases of no fault should not be subject to public disclosure,” Wenzel said. “It made that comment recently in connection with a track and field athlete. It has made that comment in the past as well in press releases and to WADA.”

WADA president Witold Banka doubled down that “WADA followed the whole due process and diligently investigated every line of inquiry on this matter. If we had to do it over again now, we would do exactly the same thing.”

“It is worth pointing out that at the same time our experts were reviewing this case in 2021,” Banka added, “we were also vigorously pursuing justice in the case of another swimmer from China, Sun Yang.”

Related: 

• Olympic Swimmers React to Chinese Doping Scandal: ‘Ban Them All And Never Compete Again’
• China Responds to Allegations of Widespread 2021 Doping: ‘Fake News’

Check out WADA’s full press conference below:

SwimSwam: WADA Points to Contamination Case in U.S. as Precedent for Clearing Chinese Swimmers in 2021