Faced with demands from the United States’ two most decorated Olympic swimmers, members of Congress on Tuesday cut off funding from the global regulator appointed to ensure a level playing field at the Olympics by refusing to hold Chinese swimmers who test them accountable. Expressed openness to stopping. Positive for banned drug.
In testimony to a House subcommittee, 23-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps and four-time Olympic gold medalist Allison Schmidt said it is unacceptable that the World Anti-Doping Agency, or WADA, has paved the way for this. The swimmers hope to win medals at the 2021 Games and compete at the upcoming Games in Paris.
Phelps and Schmidt, who were joined in their testimony by the top antidoping official in the United States, said WADA’s inaction sent a message to professional athletes, amateurs and children that doping will be tolerated. Phelps said such a lack of enforcement could ultimately doom the Olympics.
“Frankly, if we let this slide any further, we may not even have the Olympic Games,” Phelps said during a hearing before the Oversight and Investigations subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The message from both swimmers reached deaf ears, with lawmakers from both parties suggesting that WADA could be in danger of losing its funding from the United States, which gives it more money than any other country.
“Maybe if they’re not going to work, we shouldn’t even fund them,” said Representative Morgan Griffith, a Virginia Republican and chairman of the subcommittee.
The hearing is one of the most significant steps taken by U.S. officials toward WADA since The New York Times reported in April that the agency and Chinese antidoping officials had agreed to deal with a group of drug addicts who tested positive for a banned drug in early 2021. 23 specific Chinese swimmers had refused to be disciplined, leading to permission. They would compete in the games held in Tokyo that summer.
Chinese officials said the positive tests were the result of unintentional contamination of the swimmers and contained small amounts of a banned substance, a conclusion accepted by WADA but questioned by many doping experts.
Subcommittee leaders rebuked WADA President Witold Banka for refusing to testify. An empty chair and a microphone bearing his nameplate were set up next to the other witnesses.
Phelps, whose swimming career spanned five Olympic Games, told the committee that he did not believe he had ever competed in a clean field at the international level. Schmidt was a member of the US 4×200 meter freestyle relay team that finished second behind China at the Tokyo Olympics. It was one of five events in which Chinese swimmers, who tested positive for a banned substance a few months earlier, won medals, including three golds.
“We raced hard,” Schmidt said of the U.S. team in his testimony. “We followed every protocol and accepted our defeat gracefully.”
With the revelations about the Chinese positive tests, he said, “Many of us will be troubled by podium finishes that may have been affected by doping.”
WADA faces a growing crisis ahead of this summer’s Games due to scrutiny over its handling of the positive tests.
Some American athletes who will compete in Paris, including two-time Olympic gold medalist Lily King, have said they cannot be assured they will compete on a fair playing field. Phelps, who like Schmidt is retired from competitive swimming, described WADA as “an organization that has consistently proven itself to be either unable or unwilling to consistently enforce its policies around the world.”
Travis Tygart, chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency and a vocal critic of WADA, recommended that the United States condition more than $3.6 million in funding to the agency this year, saying that WADA should file a full investigation . The Chinese swimmers are on.
He also proposed in his written testimony that in an effort to prevent what happened to the Chinese swimmers from happening again, WADA formed an independent expert committee to review cases in which athletes have tested positive, but Their countries have refused to discipline them. Under current rules, even athletes who are not disciplined must publicly disclose their positive tests.
In the case of Chinese swimmers before the 2021 Games, there was no public announcement of positive tests, the swimmers were not penalized, and they went on to compete at the Olympics without their competitors knowing that they were banned. There were questions about the use of the drug. Substance
Tygart also called for an audit of the agency.
The agency stands by its stance on handling positive tests. It has appointed a former top Swiss prosecutor to investigate whether it did anything wrong or gave favorable treatment to China, although US officials, antidoping officials from other countries and athletes have questioned whether the investigation was truly independent. Will happen. The findings of that investigation are expected to be released before the Olympics.
The Times reported in April that Chinese antidoping officials claimed the athletes should not be disciplined because the drug for which they tested positive — a prescription heart drug called trimetazidine, or TMZ — was found in small quantities in a hotel kitchen. Was found in. Where he stayed for a meeting in late 2020 and early 2021.
Chinese officials concluded after the meeting that the positive tests were the result of swimmers unknowingly eating food contaminated by TMZ, although it was unclear how the drug, which comes in pill form, could have gotten into people’s food. So many swimmers.
Despite rules that require public disclosure of contamination cases — even those in which athletes are cleared of wrongdoing — the Chinese kept positive tests secret. WADA, set up as a backstop if countries fail to follow the rules, accepted Chinese officials’ explanations, did not investigate on the ground and declined to try to discipline the athletes.
The Times’ revelations about the positive tests and how WADA dealt with them raised questions around the world about the agency tasked with keeping the Olympics clean.
The loudest outcry has come from the United States, which has seen intense competition from China in swimming. The Biden White House’s top drug official has demanded greater accountability and transparency from WADA, members of Congress have urged the FBI to investigate the matter, and lawmakers are considering whether to defund the agency. To continue or not.
In his prepared remarks to the committee, Schmidt described the lengths to which U.S. athletes go to ensure compliance with antidoping rules, from urinating in front of drug testers to using prescription drugs like topical creams to help with dry skin. Simple thing involves abstinence. Not sure about the ingredients in it.
“I even had a drug tester come to me during a history exam in college, because they would show up unannounced,” Schmidt said.
Phelps first testified before Congress on the issue in 2017 in response to the doping scandal, during which a former Russian official publicly stated that the country ran a state-sponsored doping program that produced Olympic stars. Was. Phelps said at Tuesday’s hearing that it was “incredible” for him to come back to address the same issue seven years later.
Phelps said, “It is clear to me that any efforts to reform WADA have failed, and there are still deep-rooted systemic problems that prove detrimental to the integrity of international sport and the rights of athletes to compete fairly.” “
Discover more from news2source
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
