The World Anti-Doping Agency on Thursday appointed a special prosecutor to review how 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned drug were allowed to avoid public scrutiny and compete in the 2021 Olympics, where they won gold medals and set records.
The decision to appoint the special prosecutor, Eric Cottier of Switzerland, came amid an outcry from senior government officials, experts and anti-doping authorities and athletes over the way Chinese anti-doping officials and the global regulator, known as WADA, handled the positive ones.
WADA considered that the action had to be taken in response to “the harmful and unfounded accusations that are being made” against the agency since The New York Times revealed on Saturday how the Chinese anti-doping agency, known as Chinada, and WADA refused to impose disciplinary measures. or identify the 23 swimmers.
“The integrity and reputation of WADA is under attack,” WADA president Witold Banka said in a statement. “In recent days, WADA has been unfairly accused of bias in favor of China by not appealing the Chinada case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. “We continue to reject the false accusations and are pleased to be able to put these questions in the hands of an experienced, respected and independent prosecutor.”
As part of the review, the WADA said Thursday that Cottier, who was attorney general of a canton in Switzerland for 17 years before resigning in 2022, will have “full and unrestricted access to all WADA files and documents.” related to this matter.”
Among the questions WADA has tasked Mr. Cottier to answer is whether Chinada’s decision to exempt athletes from doping and WADA’s decision not to intervene were “reasonable.” WADA also asked the prosecutor to examine whether China received preferential treatment from WADA.
The announcement came three days after Banka and other senior WADA officials defended the organization’s handling of the China case.
“If we had to do it again now,” Banka declared Monday, “we would do exactly the same thing.”
That same day, the Biden administration’s top anti-doping official, who is also a member of WADA’s executive board, called for an independent investigator and said he planned to raise the issue at a meeting of sports ministers and anti-doping officials in Washington on Thursday. and Friday. .
“The United States remains committed to ensuring that all athletes in the United States and around the world have a level playing field and a fair opportunity in international athletic competitions,” said official Rahul Gupta, director of the Office of Drug Control Policy, he said Monday. “There must be rigorous and independent investigations to look into any incidents of potential wrongdoing.”
Within minutes of WADA announcing a special prosecutor, Travis T. Tygart, head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, who has been among the biggest critics of the regulator’s handling of the China case, criticized his motives.
“It is difficult to see this as anything more than a cover-up, given the ongoing threats and attacks,” Tygart said in a statement to the Times. “It is clearly pre-cooked. The WADA statement exemplifies the problem with the current system. “The AMA does not follow its own rules and then choose a lawyer from its own backyard and also set the scope of the review of that carefully selected lawyer.”
Concern about positive tests has only grown since details of the cases became public on Saturday. Anti-doping authorities in Britain and Australia had already called for an independent review, echoing demands from national swimming governing bodies, athletes and government officials around the world.
“Aquatics GB believes that every athlete has the right to compete on a level playing field, and that means a commitment to clean sport,” British swimming’s governing body said in a statement. “Meeting this commitment requires a testing process that is robust, transparent and consistently applied.”
WADA had tried to mitigate some of the fallout from the revelations about China on Monday by holding a news conference. However, that effort, which lasted almost two hours, failed to calm the outrage.
And by acknowledging that it had not followed its own procedures in the case, WADA raised further questions about whether the Chinese were treated differently than athletes from other nations facing similar accusations. The United States Anti-Doping Agency even produced a detailed rebuttal to the claims made at the press conference, an emphatic signal that the case (and WADA’s handling of it) would not be allowed to quietly disappear.