On Friday at a meeting of the board of founders of the World Anti-Doping Agency ( WADA), the organization's first president, Richard Pound, called for a lawsuit against the American Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) for damage caused by the latter's comments on the case of Chinese swimmers. Sports correspondent talks about whether a quarrel between loyal allies in the fight for the elimination of our sport from the international arena can help Russia.
And here is the Valieva case. For many years, USADA played the role of WADA’s faithful accomplice in everything related to cases regarding Russian athletes. The most striking example is the story of Kamila Valieva. Let us recall that in a sample of a Russian figure skater at the Russian Championship in December 2021, a microscopic, or more precisely, nanoscopic content of trimetazidine (remember this name if you haven’t already done so) was discovered, and the president of the American anti-doping office, Travis Tygart, began to declare out loud what he was saying. at WADA, given a certain obligation to maintain at least some decency, they only hinted.
Here are just a few of Tygart’s most striking statements regarding the Valieva case:
“The International Olympic Committee, the International Skating Union and WADA must immediately appeal any decision and conduct an open process as required by the rules to ensure confidence in the final result. The sporting public cannot believe that what happened at the Beijing Games was not yet another fraudulent victory Russians,” is the reaction of the head of USADA to the news that the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) has announced that, in full accordance with the rules, it will not publish details about Valieva’s case due to her minority.
““The world cannot accept the decision about Valieva’s acquittal by the RUSADA disciplinary committee, it is dictated by selfish interests, RUSADA was a key instrument of Russian state-sponsored doping fraud and does not comply with the global anti-doping code,” – this is how Tygart perceived the news of Valieva’s acquittal in Russia, even before proceedings before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Already during the hearings in Lausanne, the court required additional sessions to study the case, to which Tygart categorically stated: “This all smells of Russian manipulation. The system must change so that this does not happen again.”
Finally, after the verdict on Kamila’s disqualification, the head of USADA demanded that the ISU “implement the technical decision on disqualification and redistribute the medals so that the clean athletes participating in the Games will finally feel some joy and satisfaction from the long wait for justice.” Moreover, he said this on the same day, although Valieva still had the opportunity to file an appeal with the Swiss Federal Court (which, by the way, was sent and is still being considered).
The scandal with the Chinese changed everything. And just a few months later, a scandal broke out around Chinese swimmers, to a certain extent similar to the case of the Russian figure skater. The same substance is involved – trimetazidine, which, again, was found in negligible quantities in 23 athletes from the Middle Kingdom a little more than six months before the Olympic Games in Tokyo. The Chinese Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) conducted an investigation and concluded that the release of the drug into the samples was accidental. And WADA fully agreed with this verdict, having decided not to protest it in court.
It should be noted again: the decision of the World Anti-Doping Agency does look at least strange, given the circumstances of the case. The Chinese investigation was not subject to any objective control due to the fact that the pandemic was raging and the country was in lockdown, the argument that trimetazidine was allegedly found almost sprayed around the kitchen of the hotel where the athletes were staying two months after the competition , everything looks absurd because of the same coronavirus, because of which at that time all surfaces were scrubbed and disinfected with tenfold frequency. And finally, they did not take into account at all the fact that trimetazidine is produced in sealed capsules – although it was for this reason that Valieva’s initial version about the drug entering the body through her grandfather’s glass was rejected.
But at the same time, we have to admit that WADA lawyers really have solid grounds for stating that there was no chance of successfully challenging the appeal to CAS. It was already too late to look for something in that very kitchen, and it would be possible to shake the very balance of probabilities, which did not play in Valieva’s favor when reaching a verdict in her case, only if there was any real evidence of the guilt of the Chinese swimmers. Here, it was impossible not to take into account the factors that WADA spoke of as confirming the version of sample contamination: all the athletes whose samples gave a positive result were from different regions of the country, in addition, some were tested several times, and some samples showed the absence of a prohibited drug.
American attack and WADA's tough response However, the head of USADA in this case joined those who adhered to the version that WADA deliberately concealed the story of Chinese doping. Tygart said that “everyone who had a hand in this must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” After WADA held a special press conference where it explained in detail its actions against the Chinese swimmers, USADA posted a devastating text on its page with new accusations.
“How can a global regulator be satisfied if it allows a case of 23 positive tests to be dismissed, where not a single athlete or organization is held accountable? With this in mind, we call on governments and the WADA founding board to launch a full investigation into how it happened that the Chinese “positive tests were hidden and WADA allowed this to happen without any consequences, contrary to its own rules. All athletes, sponsors and fans of the Olympic and Paralympic movement deserve a true global watchdog that has teeth and the determination to apply the rules uniformly and fairly,” they said. to USADA.
A full-fledged investigation has been launched – an independent prosecutor from Switzerland has been appointed, who is studying the circumstances of the case and WADA’s actions in it. Immediately in the American press, facts of his connections with the IOC, the main financial donor of WADA, were unearthed. And after this, at a Friday meeting of the WADA founding council, they threatened to sue USADA for causing reputational damage. At the same time, WADA President Witold Banka pulled a couple of trump cards from his sleeve – for example, he stated that 90% of American athletes are not subject to the global anti-doping code. This is not an accusation of doping, but at least a hint that they are being tested to different standards. He also reported that one in five American participants at the 2022 World Athletics Championships did not undergo doping testing ahead of the tournament.
In general, you can get out the popcorn in anticipation of how the quarrel between the two main accusers of Russian sports will end. Unfortunately, it is unlikely to help us – although, if, for example, the Court of Arbitration for Sport really wanted justice in the Valieva case, it could return to considering a number of arguments that WADA used to justify the Chinese swimmers, but did not want to take into account in relation to Russian figure skater. This will not happen – but there is hope that in the sports community more and more countries will begin to wonder why the world anti-doping regulator is openly politicizing its actions against some and playing at the demonstrative objectivity with others.
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