The doping storm that threatens to dominate these Olympics has intensified after one of the US team’s biggest stars said he had no confidence in how a case involving 23 Chinese swimmers was handled.
Caeleb Dressel, the seven-time Olympic gold medallist, gave a devastatingly blunt three-word answer when asked if he had faith in the authorities. “No, not really.”
When pressed, he added: “I don’t think they have given us enough evidence to support how this case was handled.”
Dressel is competing in his third Games, but it is the first one since a scandal emerged involving the Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned heart drug, TMZ, in 2021.
The case only became public thanks to the New York Times and German TV station ARD-1 in April which has raised concerns among governing bodies and athletes who have asked serious questions about the World Anti-Doping Agency’s investigation three years ago.
The US Anti-Doping Agency has been particularly critical of Wada’s decision to accept a Chinese investigation that said all 23 swimmers were contaminated by traces of TMZ in a hotel kitchen – even though evidence to prove that theory has not been published.
Earlier this month, an independent investigation – appointed by Wada – found the anti-doping authority did not show bias in clearing the swimmers to compete in Tokyo.
However, the criticism continued at a Wada press conference on Thursday, with the ARD journalist, Hajo Seppelt, vocally telling Wada that its investigation was inadequate. He repeated claims it had not interviewed the Chinese athletes or checked social media evidence from 2021 suggesting they were not all staying in the same hotel.
The Guardian understands that 11 of the 23 Chinese swimmers are due to compete in Paris. However, this story goes far beyond poison in the pool, and into global geopolitics and open warfare in the anti-doping world.
The FBI is now investigating the Chinese swimmers under the Rodchenkov Act, which was passed after the Russian doping scandal at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014 and gives federal agencies wide jurisdiction of doping enforcement worldwide.
However, Wada and the International Olympic Committee resent what they see as Usada challenging their authority. On Thursday Wada’s president, Witold Banka, revealed that the Rodchenkov Act would go to its compliance review committee next month, “to check whether this legislation is in alignment with our world anti-doping code”.
The sense is that it will lead to Usada potentially being declared non-compliant by Wada. That could lead to a range of disciplinary measures – including, potentially, losing the right to host the Olympics.
Separately the IOC has also told the US that it must support Wada as the global leader in the fight against doping or risk losing the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2034. It has amended the host city contract so that it can terminate it “in cases where the supreme authority of Wada in the fight against doping is not fully respected or if the application of the anti-doping code is hindered or undermined”.
The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee board chair, Gene Sykes, admitted the row between Wada and Usada was increasingly causing issues. “They’ve been playing a game of ping pong with media bullets, if you will, and it’s obviously been distressing,” he said.
Speaking in Paris, Banka also admitted that Wada couldn’t guarantee that these Olympics would be the cleanest ever. “It’s not our role to do it,” he said. “It’s not that now we want to assure that every single athlete is clean. We do not. It’s obvious that you will never eliminate doping from the sporting landscape. You will always find someone who wants to cheat.”
The problem is some swimmers are still not convinced that Wada is doing enough. They include the Australian breaststroke champion Zac Stubblety-Cook, who on Thursday voiced his displeasure.
“I absolutely believe in clean sport and I hope that this is a clean Games,” he said. “But I think it’s less about what country they came from and more about the system and how ultimately it feels like it’s failed. That’s the truth.”
