According to the China Anti-Doping Center: Recently, we have noticed that the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has made serious mistakes in covering up doping violations by United States athletes and allowing them to participate in competitions exposed by foreign media. In a subsequent public statement, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) noted that since 2011, USADA has exempted athletes who use steroids and erythropoietin (EPO) from charges and penalties in at least three cases, allowing them to act as so-called undercover informants and continue to compete until retirement. USADA covered up this practice for a long time, not notifying WADA for a decade, and it was not stopped until 2021.
USADA's actions are a serious violation of the World Anti-Doping Code and its own rules, seriously undermining fair competition in sports and the rights and interests of clean athletes, and demonstrating a serious lack of transparency in its anti-doping efforts. The US has turned a blind eye to its long-standing anti-doping "bad habits" and tried to cross its borders to govern other countries, which has also made the international community see clearly its true colors of "thieves shouting to catch thieves" and "double standards". In response to questions from the media, the head of the agency openly claimed that such cover-ups were an effective way to address a larger, more systemic problem. But the cover-up, which not only exposes the arrogance and contempt of the agency's head, but also further confirms the serious problem of large-scale, organized and systematic doping in sports in United States.
We strongly call on the United States Congress and the Board of Directors of USADA to face up to the serious doping problem in United States and the serious governance deficiencies of USADA itself, strengthen the supervision and restraint of USADA, intensify anti-doping efforts in their own countries, and immediately stop the egregious acts of "long-arm jurisdiction" and gross interference in the anti-doping efforts of other countries.
We strongly call for an independent investigation into the cover-up of serious violations of the World Anti-Doping Code by USADA. USADA should immediately release details of the cases involved, respond to media and public concerns about its own issues, and fulfill the principles of transparency that it has repeatedly committed to in its statement.
Attachment: WADA Statement on Reuters' Disclosure of United States Anti-Doping Agency Violations of the World Anti-Doping Code (Chinese translation)
On August 7, 2024, Reuters released a report revealing that the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has allowed doping athletes to compete for years, while these anti-doping rules have never been publicized or punished. This is a direct violation of the World Anti-Doping Code (the Code) and USADA's own regulations, to which the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has responded.
The Code is committed to protecting the fairness of athletic competitions, and USADA's actions are a clear violation of the regulations and threaten the fairness of athletic competitions. Contrary to USADA's claims, WADA did not allow drug cheaters to continue to participate in the contest in order to obtain evidence of others' crimes.
There is a provision in the Code that allows a Player to suspend a portion of his or her ban if he or she is able to provide practical assistance to the Anti-Doping Organization so that the Anti-Doping Organization discovers a doping violation by another party. However, the regulation has a clear procedure and does not allow doping athletes to continue to compete on the pretext of obtaining evidence of violations by others. After years of such behavior, WADA finally discovered the violation in 2021 and immediately ordered USADA to cease the behavior.
Now, WADA has identified at least three such cases in which athletes have been competing in serious anti-doping violations for years, acting as undercover agents for USADA. WADA is not notified, and neither the Regulations nor USADA's own regulations permit such conduct.
An elite United States athlete who competed in Olympic qualifiers and numerous international events admitted to taking steroids and erythropoietin without being banned and competed until he retired. The case was never announced, the results of the tournament were never canceled, the prize money was never returned, and the ban was never imposed. The athlete competes as if he had never cheated. When USADA finally admitted the case to WADA, USADA said that either the announcement of the results or the cancellation of the results would put the athlete's life at risk, and asked WADA not to make it public. In this dilemma, WADA had no choice but to agree. Previously, the WADA Intelligence and Investigation Service verified the credibility of the alleged security threat. As a result, the athlete's doping violations were never made public.
In addition, USADA's failure to notify WADA of the Ordinance's requirements before lifting a provisional suspension for a high-performance athlete is subject to appeal. If WADA had known, it would never have allowed this to happen.
How would athletes who play fair feel if they knew that their opponents were cheating, and that they were cheating with USADA permission? It is ironic and hypocritical for USADA to yell at suspicion that other anti-doping organizations are not strictly complying with the rules, but to not publish doping cases for years, allowing cheaters to continue playing just because they have the potential to help catch other violators. WADA wondered if the USADA Board of Governors, which governs USADA, and the United States Congress, which funds it, were aware of the non-compliant practices, which not only undermined the integrity of athletic competition, but also jeopardized the safety of cooperating athletes.
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Comprehensive|China Anti-Doping Center Editor|Wei Wei Attention