The American Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has rolled out a powerful response to recent statements by the President of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), Witold Banka, who, justifying his inaction in the case of Chinese swimmers, as they say, “attacked” overseas sports, hinting at its dubious cleanliness from doping. Sport correspondent – with new details of the quarrel between ardent haters of Russia.
“90% of American athletes are not under the jurisdiction of WADA” An amazing quarrel between two organizations that have been actively collaborating in recent years in the process of mixing Russian sports with crap is gaining momentum. Let us remember that it all started with reports from the American edition of The New York Times and the German television channel ARD, which disclosed information about 23 positive doping tests of leading Chinese swimmers for trimetazidine, taken approximately six months before the Tokyo Olympics, held in July-August 2021. WADA should have done this, but they not only agreed with the arguments of the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) and did not punish anyone, but also kept the story secret.
More recently, USADA and WADA actively advocated – and ultimately achieved their goal – for the strictest possible punishment for the minor Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, in whose sample a negligible concentration of the same substance was found. Now the American Anti-Doping Agency is indignant at how WADA believed the story provided by the Chinese about the drug, which is produced in capsules, being sprayed throughout the hotel kitchen, and why the global anti-doping regulator had no doubts about the Chinese side’s statement that traces of trimetazidine were found later two months after adults and experienced athletes tested positive, although this was the height of the coronavirus pandemic, and surfaces had to be disinfected several times daily.
It’s hard not to agree that the explanations provided from China are hardly, so to speak, more convincing than the version about the dessert prepared by Kamila Valieva’s grandfather. But, after all, WADA may have had reasons to believe one thing and not the other. And the main complaint of USADA is precisely that all information on the case of the Chinese swimmers is hidden. “We again call on WADA to release the full dossier to the world. This is simply a demand, and it can be fulfilled today if WADA has nothing to hide,” USADA said in a statement released on May 20.
However, the president of WADA, apparently somewhat tired of the unexpected attacks from his recent allies, last week during a meeting of the organization’s board of founders allowed himself a number of careless attacks against American sports and its relationship with doping. Which, if it was worth doing, would be done in the most correct formulations, so as not to expose yourself to a powerful response. As a result, Banka gave USADA a reason to inflict a series of punches on him – which the American Anti-Doping Agency took advantage of. “The classic technique is to distract attention,” they said and analyzed the Pole’s statements individually.
“Some of the most unexpected cases of sample contamination have occurred in the United States – through dog medications, through a kiss from a friend who bought drugs while on vacation in India, through tap water and many others,” the WADA president's hint is obvious. But the main and crushing argument USADA put forward in response is that in all of these cases, the athletes, according to the rules, were initially suspended, and the case was made public. In the case of the Chinese swimmers, neither was done.
“90% of American athletes are not under the jurisdiction of the World Anti-Doping Code,” Banka also said, and it was difficult to perceive these words as anything other than “90% of American athletes are not tested for doping.” In reality, of course, this is not true – in the professional and collegiate leagues of the United States there are doping controls, they are simply not carried out under the jurisdiction of WADA. And the leagues themselves, as we know, do not suffer much from this. For these statements, USADA demanded an apology from the Polish official.
“31% of U.S. athletes who are subject to the World Anti-Doping Code were not sufficiently tested in the 12 months leading up to the Tokyo Games, based on our data,” USADA also called Banka's statement “grossly misleading.” “The International Testing Agency (ITA) issued recommendations for testing athletes before the Tokyo Olympics, USADA complied with 99.5% of them, although this was not required by the rules. Importantly, the ITA did not recommend testing of 50.2% of American athletes who competed in Tokyo, but they were still tested before the Games by USADA and international federations,” the response says.
In addition, the Americans noted that if WADA is dissatisfied with the level of testing of athletes under its own code in the United States, then these are the problems of the international organization itself – why is it not fulfilling its duties.
“One in five American track and field athletes did not pass a single out-of-competition test before the 2022 World Championships,” Banka also said, having received a response to this. “The WADA President's vendetta against American athletes does not take into account samples collected during the testing program conducted by USADA in collaboration with the Athletics Adverse Events Unit (AIU),” USADA noted, adding that in fact, everyone American track and field athletes passed an average of 3.7 out-of-competition tests before that World Championships.
A battle between the toad and the viper Summarizing the above, Banka stated: “Of course, I could provide more numbers, but I think this is enough to … point out the hypocrisy of some members of the US anti-doping community. American athletes, like athletes around the world, deserve a fair and harmonized anti-doping system. systems in their countries deserve better than these political games.”
USADA responded to this with the findings of a 2023 audit, in which WADA called the American anti-doping program “extensive and effective.” “Banka's statements are an attack on American athletes and the manipulation of data to create a false narrative that harms all athletes and the global anti-doping system,” the statement said. “WADA should be a firm and fair arbiter who plays by the rules, not a school bully.” fearful and abusing its power. WADA can remove all questions simply by being transparent and publishing the dossier on China. This is a better result for the global anti-doping system than doubts about the integrity of athletes.”
Well, to summarize – by a long shot. One could agree with the arguments of the American Anti-Doping Agency. But only if you don’t remember the statements of the head of this organization, Travis Tygart, about Russia and its athletes – and many of them not only do not shine with logic and correctness of facts, which USADA is now demanding from Banka, but they are simply slander. Therefore, for now this whole skirmish looks like a “fight between a toad and a viper.” It is obvious that both sides do not want to back down. But at the same time, they do not offer radical organizational conclusions. It’s a pity – the ideal outcome would be to replace the most odious personalities in world anti-doping, which, without a doubt, are both Banka and Tygart, with adequate people with whom one could build normal working relationships.
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