“Zero transparency”: Matter of trust why World Anti-Doping Agency did not share acquittals of Chinese swimmers who tested positive

WADA has yet again received criticism regarding their handling of the positive drug tests returned by 23 Chinese swimmers prior to the last Olympic Games in Tokyo, after another astonishing revelation. JULIAN LINDEN reports.

World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Polish President Witold Banka delivers a speech at the opening of the two-day annual WADA symposium in March. Picture: Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP

THE World-Anti Doping Agency’s (WADA) stubborn refusal to accept any blame over its handling of the Chinese swimming scandal that has rocked the sports world has plummeted to a new low.

In its latest attempt to convince everyone there was no cover up, WADA’s leaders have given a jaw dropping explanation about why they didn’t tell their own executive board members that almost two dozen Chinese swimmers were secretly acquitted after testing positive to the banned drug trimetazidine in the lead up to the 2021 the Tokyo Olympics.

Asked by Darren Mulally, the Australian Minister for Sport’s deputy on the Foundation Board and Executive Committee meetings, to confirm reports from this masthead that executives were kept in the dark, WADA’s legal counsel confessed that it was kept secret up because they didn’t trust everyone to stay quiet about it.

“If one were to provide information to the foundation and in reality, even to the executive board, there’s of course, the risk of that information becoming public,” WADA’s lawyer Ross Wenzel said.

“If (the public was told) on the eve of the Games that 23 Chinese swimmers have been positive for a given substance and were found by WADA or at least WADA accepted a contamination explanation that was put forward and hasn’t appealed against the finding of no anti-doping violation, that would give rise to a media frenzy.”

He wasn’t wrong about that because the world’s sporting press has gone ballistic since this masthead broke the news four weeks ago.

And the fourth estate isn’t alone in asking curly questions.

Australia’s anti-doping regulators also want answers. So do the bosses of major Olympic sports, including swimming.

Perhaps most importantly, athletes also want to know whether the proper rules were followed and why they were never told about the case until three years later.

“The problem with this whole thing is there has been zero transparency,” said Rob Koehler, a former WADA director who now runs Global Athlete.

“They haven’t followed the rules and if WADA has nothing to hide, and they’re fully confident that everything they’ve done is in accordance with the world Anti-Doping code, they should be very comfortable releasing all the documents.

“The science is weak. The explanations are weak. And the lack of transparency, of course, leads to a cloud of suspicion.

“We’ve had athletes coming to us who have been through the system and said ‘I did much less. I had a tainted supplement and they (WADA) came after me non-stop. Eventually, I had my sanctions reduced, but I spent $100,000 trying to fight what I was trying to stand up for.”

China’s swimmers pulled off a major surprise when they beat Australia to win gold in the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay at the Tokyo Olympics. Picture: Alex Coppel.

WADA maintains that it did everything by the book and the Chinese investigators were correct in finding that the swimmers had all been innocent victims of contaminated food prepared in a hotel kitchen.

Former WADA President Dick Pound singled out the American anti-doping agency USADA over its ongoing criticism of WADA, saying they should be sued for damages.

“I am deeply disappointed and disgusted by the deliberate lies and distortions coming from USADA, including that WADA has swept doping cases in China under the rug,” Pound said.

“That accusation, bereft of any truth, has but a single purpose to deliberately damage the reputation of WADA and to lessen worldwide trust that has been built up since WADA was created a quarter of a century ago.

“USADA is financed by the United States government. That government is currently in a chilly relationship with the Chinese government. Could there be a connection?”

USADA chief executive Travis Tygart fired straight back.

“As predicted, WADA is much better at circling the wagons than they are at actually being transparent. The fact is that WADA leaders violated their own rules by, at a minimum, not finding any violations or publicising the cases,” Tygart said.

“This is self-evident, no matter how many times or how angrily WADA denies it and replays its scripted efforts to convince the world everything is okay. Trust comes from truth and transparency, not obfuscation and childish bluster.

“Unfortunately, we all know that when you are afraid of the facts, the classic response is to attack the messenger, distract from the real issues, and make it personal. That’s exactly what we continue to see from WADA.

“And most devastating, WADA has now resorted to attacking athletes, the very people it is supposed to protect.”

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach is hoping there won’t be any protests at Paris this year. Picture: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP

WADA has announced it will hold another conference call with athletes next week in the hope of convincing them they can put their faith in the anti-doping system.

But most athletes are not expected to tune it with Koehler telling this masthead they are worried they could be singled out for punishment by administrators wanting to scare anyone from thinking about protesting at the Paris Olympics.

“I get athletes calling me all the time, absolutely pissed off and are afraid to speak out. We would never push them to speak out either,” he said.

“If they want to speak up and speak out, we can support them and encourage them and protect them. You don’t ever silence them for speaking out because the athletes’ voice is very important.

“It’s going to put a cloud of suspicion through the whole Games and for the rest of the anti-doping movement.

“They hope things will go away and things do go away eventually. People forget but this is a pretty big one.”

Originally published as “Zero transparency”: Matter of trust why World Anti-Doping Agency did not share acquittals of Chinese swimmers who tested positive