The World Anti-Doping Agency said Tuesday it committed misconduct by not imposing penalties on elite Chinese swimmers who tested positive for banned substances in the run-up to the last Summer Olympics, as new details emerged that raised questions about how the agency handled the decision.
A special prosecutor appointed by the anti-doping agency WADA to review the agency’s decision said he found the agency made an “indisputably reasonable” decision not to impose penalties on the swimmers, and concluded the agency had not given preferential treatment to China.
But in an appendix to his report, the prosecutor noted that two of the agency’s top scientists said they had difficulty believing China’s claim that the swimmers were unintentionally infected.
WADA’s decision to clear itself of wrongdoing is unlikely to please anti-doping experts and other critics, particularly in the United States. They have alleged that the investigator, Eric Cottier, was handpicked by agency officials and that the doping regulator, along with the Chinese, covered up the 2021 positive tests.
The announcement came five days after it was reported that the Justice Department and FBI had opened criminal investigations into the handling of the positive tests. And it came just over two months after The New York Times revealed that 23 elite Chinese swimmers all tested positive for the same banned heart medication, months before the 2021 Summer Games in Tokyo.
According to the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency, the cause of the positive results was a mass contamination incident. The swimmers are said to have unknowingly taken the banned drug trimetazidine (TMZ) after eating food served at a hotel where they were staying for a competition.
Despite being unable to prove how or why the swimmers had taken the drug, WADA – which is supposed to act as a safety net when countries fail to properly monitor their own athletes – effectively accepted the Chinese explanation at face value when it refused to launch its own investigation or punish the athletes.
The lack of penalties paved the way for several Chinese swimmers to win medals — including three gold — at the Tokyo Olympics. Eleven of the 23 swimmers who tested positive are on the Chinese team competing in this month’s Paris Games. Several are again favorites to win medals.
Announcing the prosecutor’s findings, the head of WADA said the agency would now target those who had brought it into disrepute.
“Now that the Independent Prosecutor has confirmed that there were no irregularities in WADA’s handling of the case, the agency will consider, together with an external lawyer, what action can be taken against those who made untrue and potentially defamatory allegations,” said Witold Banka, WADA President.
He claimed that news reports and allegations of a cover-up “have been extremely damaging to WADA’s reputation and to the trust that athletes and other stakeholders have in the agency and in the global anti-doping system.”
Mr. Cottier’s investigation was limited in its scope. It did not, for example, examine how China originally handled the cases or the information it relied on to exonerate its swimmers. And the report he provided is only in an interim form; a final version will not be completed and published before the start of the Paris Olympics, WADA said, even though some of the Chinese swimmers involved in the doping case — including several who have tested positive more than once without penalty — will participate.
WADA Director General Olivier Niggli said the final report would be finalized “in the coming weeks” and then discussed with the agency’s Executive Board in September. “We understand that it will contain recommendations aimed at strengthening the global anti-doping system, which we welcome,” he said.
As part of Tuesday’s announcement, WADA released Mr Cottier’s report and an appendix to it. The appendix detailed internal discussions between two of WADA’s top scientists in 2021 as the agency grappled with how to deal with the positive tests in China.
According to the attachment, WADA’s chief scientist, Olivier Rabin, said he had doubts about the scientific basis for the Chinese claims about the contamination and “that the Chinese had not found any person among the kitchen or hotel staff who had used TMZ.”
Irene Mazzoni, WADA’s chief scientist responsible for the banned substances list, said she had “difficulty believing in contamination due to the minimal doses found in the kitchen” where the drug was found, the report said.
However, both scientists said they had no choice but to accept WADA’s decision as they could not refute the Chinese claims.
According to the report, Mr Rabin “saw no other solution than to accept it, even though he continued to have doubts about the reality of the contamination as described by the Chinese authorities”.
Mr. Cottier’s choice to lead the investigation was criticized from the start. As the former attorney general of Vaud, a Swiss region that has long been a center of international sports and home to several governing bodies, he had close ties to WADA and Olympic officials. He had been nominated to lead the investigation by the official responsible for overseeing WADA’s intelligence and investigations department at the time the Chinese swimmers tested positive.
The accountant, Jacques Antenen, was Vaud’s police chief under Mr. Cottier when he was Vaud’s attorney general. In a telephone interview on May 3, Mr. Antenen said he had contacted Mr. Niggli, WADA’s most senior executive, in the days after the announcement of the positive tests to suggest that Mr. Cottier might be a good choice to lead an investigation.
“I didn’t recommend him; I just said if you need someone, he’s a good choice,” Mr. Antenen said. He said he didn’t know if others had been considered for the role.
WADA reacted angrily when questions were first raised about Mr Cottier’s independence, saying that “attempts to question the integrity of a highly regarded professional once he begins his work are increasingly ridiculous and designed to undermine the process.”
