’Was a mistake’: Former boss David Howman says WADA shouldn’t have trusted China

Former WADA boss David Howman says the current regime’s call to not challenge China’s decision to clear 23 swimmers who tested positive to TMZ ‘was a mistake’.

Director General of the World Anti-Doping Agency, David Howman, speaks at a media conference at the Commonwealth Games main press centre in Delhi, India on Saturday, Oct. 2, 2010. The XIX Commonwealth Games will open on October 3. (AAP Image/Paul Miller) NO ARCHIVING

The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) should have challenged China’s decision to clear 23 swimmers who tested positive for a banned substance before the Tokyo Olympics, according to a former head of the global regulator.

David Howman, Wada director general from 2003 until the eve of the Rio Games in 2016, told The Times that Wada’s decision to accept China’s version of events on trust “was a mistake” that could deal a serious blow to the integrity of the anti-doping system.

The investigative powers of the regulator might also be undermined through loss of trust among potential whistleblowers, he suggested. Howman, who is chair of the Athletics Integrity Unit, said he felt compelled to speak up after watching Wada’s management defend its decision to let the swimmers off because they had “innocently” tested positive for the heart-booster trimetazidine (TMZ) during a competition in January 2021 - seven months before the Tokyo Games, which were delayed by a year because of the pandemic.

Howman told The Times: “This is where the lawyers are losing touch. They say you cannot appeal . . . because you are not going to succeed. That’s not what you do with the law as a regulator. You test the laws by going to court - test it and get the answers you need. You don’t just go on what people say.

“We’re told that they have had reports from independent expert lawyers and independent expert scientists and medical experts, so show those documents. If they don’t show them, the only conclusion we can reach is that they’re scared to do so. The fear factor is running supreme.”

WADA Polish President Witold Banka. Picture: AFP

Wada acknowledged that it had no direct access to China at the time because of Covid travel restrictions. Despite being unable to verify the Chinese “evidence”, it accepted the finding of a report that has not yet been published.

The Chinese anti-doping body (Chinada) told Wada and World Aquatics that security agents had allegedly discovered traces of the banned substance in the kitchen of a hotel ten weeks after they had stayed there. That investigation is said to have taken place just before Chinada entered 28 positives from the 23 swimmers in Wada’s Anti-Doping Administration & Management System in mid-March.

Sun Yang was suspended for the same substance the Chinese swimmers have been accused of taking. Picture: AFP

It was mid-June, a month out from the Tokyo Olympics, before Chinada reported to Wada that “mass contamination” was the source and that the “no fault” status of athletes meant the file would be closed. The same substance also led to suspensions for the Chinese swimmer Sun Yang and Russian teenage figure skater Kamila Valieva.

Among Howman’s concerns are a lack of any source of the TMZ, a departure from Wada rules and the lack of any documents so far to show that athletes were served proper notice of their positives. A key issue was “one of process and engagement of anyone other than management” in a decision of the magnitude of 23 positive cases when evidence could only be considered on trust, not independent verification.

Howman does not accept Wada’s argument that a challenge at the Court of Arbitration for Sport would have failed. He is also concerned that officials have been playing down the severity of TMZ, which “hasn’t yet been called out in the way it ought to be”.

He added: “TMZ is one of the preferred drugs of choice of dopers who are intentionally doping. Several cases have been reported even recently.”