An investigator supported the World Anti-Doping Agency’s handling of a case doping case involving 23 Chinese swimmers, while also publishing notes highlighting WADA’s own scientific director expressing doubts about China’s explanation of how athletes were subjected to contamination.
WADA on Tuesday released an interim report from the Swiss prosecutor chosen for the investigation, Eric Cottier, who concluded that he had found no evidence that WADA showed favoritism in relation to China in handling the case.
Cottier also said WADA made a “reasonable” decision in accepting the word of authorities in China who determined the swimmers ingested a banned heart medicationthe residue of which was found in the kitchen of the hotel where the athletes were staying.
Eleven of the swimmers who tested positive were allowed to continue competing after WADA chose not to pursue the case in 2021 and are now scheduled to swim at the Paris Olympics, which begin later this month.
In an annex to his interim report, Cottier described WADA chief scientist Olivier Rabin as unable to exclude the contamination scenario and therefore faced with “no other solution than to accept it, even if he continued to have doubts about the reality of contamination as described”. by Chinese authorities.”
Any doubts he had, Rabin said in a press release accompanying the report, were not enough to give WADA a reasonable opportunity to win an appeal of the Chinese decision.
“In this case, despite our skepticism, a thorough analysis of all the verifiable facts of the case revealed no evidence that challenged the contamination scenario,” Rabin said. “Instead, all available evidence pointed to blameless contamination versus intentional ingestion.”
WADA President Witold Banka said Cottier’s investigation confirmed “that there was no impropriety linked to WADA’s handling of the case. He said the agency’s next step would be to meet with outside legal counsel to see “what action can be taken against those who have made false and potentially defamatory allegations.”
“These allegations have been extremely damaging to WADA’s reputation and the trust that athletes and other stakeholders have in the Agency and the global anti-doping system,” Banka said.
In April, German broadcaster ARD and the New York Times revealed the existence of the cases and the way they were handled.
This led WADA to appoint Cottier to explore two questions: was there some bias toward China that led WADA not to pursue the case, and was WADA’s decision not to appeal to the Chinese authorities’ explanation of the contamination reasonable?
Critics considered the investigation unreliable because its focus was too narrow and it was being led by an investigator handpicked by WADA.
One of WADA’s most vocal critics, U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart, said that while the Cottier report answered some questions, many others remained – namely, why WADA didn’t open its own investigation into the basic facts. of the case, rather than simply taking China’s word for it about the source of the contamination.
“From the beginning, our goal has been to uncover the truth and facts of this situation on behalf of clean athletes,” Tygart said. “Until WADA leadership shares this goal and stops hurling criticism at any dissenting voice, there will be no trust in the global anti-doping system.”
Cottier is expected to deliver a full report later this year that will contain recommendations on WADA procedures and the global anti-doping code.
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