US Anti-Doping Agency ‘fully support’s US government withholding World Anti-Doping Agency payment
The United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) has said it “fully supports” the US government’s decision to withhold a $3.6 million (£2.8 million) payment to the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada).
The incident comes as controversy continues over the handling of a doping scandal involving Chinese swimmers.
This happened in April 23 swimmers from this country Despite testing positive for a banned substance months ago, he was allowed to compete in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
USA Track and Field CEO Travis Tygart said delaying payments is “the only right option to protect athletes’ rights, responsibilities and fair competition.”
He added in a statement that WADA “has left the United States with no choice after failing to meet several very reasonable demands, such as an independent audit of its operations, to achieve the level of transparency and accountability needed.” system”.
Global Anti-Doping Agency responded that representatives from the United States are now ineligible to serve on its foundation’s board or executive committee.
In April, WADA said it was “unable to refute” China Anti-Doping Agency’s claims that they had inadvertently ingested the performance-enhancing heart drug trimetazidine (TMZ).
This sparked an outcry from Western anti-doping agencies and athletes, with the United States Anti-Doping Agency recommending a cover-up, but WADA rejected the claims as “completely false and defamatory.”
The company said it was caught up in “geopolitical tensions” between the United States and China. Independent investigation finds WADA There was no mishandling of the case Or show prejudice against Chinese swimmers.
However, U.S. lawmakers later accused WADA of failing to properly investigate the allegations and introduced legislation that would give the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy the power to cut funding.
The United States has been WADA’s top government funding partner since its inception in 2000 and will host the next two largest global sporting events – the 2026 Men’s World Cup and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics .
“Since WADA failed to address the positive test results of 23 Chinese swimmers and gave China and its athletes special treatment under the rules, many stakeholders around the world – including athletes, governments and national anti-doping agencies – are looking for answers, transparency and accountability from WADA’s leadership,” Tygart said.
“Because WADA has failed to uniformly enforce existing global rules to protect the integrity of competition and the fair rights of athletes, WADA must undertake significant reforms to ensure this does not happen again.”
WADA confirmed in a statement that “it has not received the agreed contribution from the US government to its 2024 budget by the deadline of 31 December 2024.”
It added that the overall budget for 2025 is $57.5m (£46.5m).
