The tone is rising between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the United States. The extraordinary meeting of the agency's founding board, convened on Friday May 17 to discuss the affair of the 23 cases of doping in Chinese swimming, gave WADA the opportunity to settle its scores before the American Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and its director, Travis Tygart. Several hundred people from all continents gathered virtually to obtain detailed explanations and justifications. Nobody was bored. Straight in his boots, the president of the WADA, Witold Banka, repeated and asserted: the positive tests of the Chinese swimmers were not the result of doping, but of food contamination, as claimed by the Chinese authorities. “ There has never been any doping. This is unintentional food contamination., insisted the Pole.
We have never tried to hide these cases as some Western media say. There is no evidence of doping. This is political media hysteria. » That being said, Witold Banka lashed out at USADA and Travis Tygart, accusing him of
defamatory. “We will not allow anyone to question the integrity of our agency”, he said during the meeting. Above all, the president of WADA openly questioned the policy of the United States in the fight against doping, emphasizing
the lack of testing at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene in 2022, and questioning the fact that more than 30% of American athletes had not been tested since the start of qualifying for the Paris 2024 Games. Less expected was the position of the former president of the AMA (1999 to 2007), the Canadian Dick Pound (photo above). The former dean of the IOC members was the most offensive in criticizing the United States. “USADA is directly funded by the US government and strained relations between China and the US could explain its agency's attitude towards Chinese swimmers, suggested Dick Pound. These are biased and irresponsible criticisms and accusations. When this whole thing is settled, we will have to think about legal complaints against USADA. »
