WADA reiterate handling of Chinese swimmers fair and appropriate

The World Anti-Doping Agency has reiterated it's handling of the contamination case involving Chinese athletes was reasonably fair and appropriate, while urging the United States' anti-doping system to keep up with the international rules.

One day before the opening of the Paris Olympics, WADA took it to a high-profile pre-Games news conference on Thursday to defend its integrity, legality and consistency to globally-recognized rules and codes in its handling of a case involving 23 Chinese swimmers being contaminated by a banned substance in early 2021.

The global anti-doping regulator has also strongly denied groundless accusations again by some media outlets, and in particular, the United States Anti-Doping Agency that it had helped "cover up" intentional doping.

Witold Banka, president of WADA, also stressed that the US authorities should focus more on taking care of their own business back home by making sure that the domestic anti-doping system in the States stays in line with the global regulations and code.

"Everything was in line with the regulations, with the code to appoint the independent prosecutor (to review the case involving Chinese athletes). The conclusion (of the independent prosecutor report) shouldn't be any clearer that WADA didn't show any bias towards China, or any interference or another other impropriety in its assessment of the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency's decision," Banka responded to a question on WADA's handling of the case during the news conference at the Main Press Center in Paris.

"It's very important that WADA's decision not to appeal the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport was indisputably reasonable."

The 23 swimmers involved in the case, who tested positive for trimetazidine (TMZ) during the national championships in January 2021, were proven by a CHINADA investigation to have ingested the substance unwittingly after inadvertently being exposed to it at a hotel so that their tests returned positive results for an "extremely low concentration" of the substance.

After running thorough probes into the case, supported by external consultations, both World Aquatics and WADA had agreed on CHINADA's conclusion that it was a contamination incident and decided not to appeal the ruling by the Chinese anti-doping authorities. No athletes involved in the incident were held accountable for intentional doping violations, nor any suspensions were imposed.

Olivier Niggli, WADA's director general who also attended the news conference, said any concrete further evidence regarding the case is welcomed, but so far what has been reported by some media as new leads into the case has turned out more like "hearsay" than verified evidence.

"We never said that we would not look at new evidence. But are we talking about evidence, or are we talking about other things?" Niggli said.

"We never said we would not reopen or look at whatever new evidence has come up if there is anything that it can be called evidence that is given to us ... I mean, there's a difference between the evidence and hearsay."

Citing the fact that 90 percent of American athletes from the collegiate sports system and the major professional leagues in North America are not monitored under the WADA system, Banka urged that the US anti-doping authorities should make further efforts to keep it up with the rest of the world in compliance with the global regulations.

"This is a serious issue we raised many times in our statements. I think this issue has to be addressed and it's the USADA's responsibility," said Banka.

"Because in accordance with the data published by the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee, by now, there are 75 percent of current American Olympians participating in the Olympic Games in Paris are coming from this system (which is isolated to the world anti-doping code and regulation). So definitely there is a gap in the US anti-doping system. And this is the role of USADA to address this step."