American regulator Travis Tygart accuses the World Anti-Doping Agency of “allowing” Chinese authority to cover up illegal drug-taking by top swimmers.
Chinese drug cheats and officials willing to turn a blind eye threaten to make the Paris 2024 Olympics a “train wreck,” the top U.S. anti-doping regulator said.
Travis Tygart’s trenchant remarks cast another shadow over Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s ongoing visit to France where he is meeting President Emmanuel Macron, less than three months before the Olympics begin.
Last month, The New York Times and German broadcaster ARD published a bombshell investigation revealing 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for prohibited drugs before the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, but were still permitted to take part in the Games, with several winning medals.
The list of 100s of athletes failing tests paints a different picture. USADA performs random testing at random times. Cheaters are going to cheat but the US is not complicit in that cheating. It’s a constant arms race cheaters find ways around testing and testers find ways to detect the new methods.