WASHINGTON — The two leaders of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee sent a letter Friday to the president of the world's anti-doping agency demanding answers about how they'll “ensure fair competition” ahead of the Paris Olympic games this summer and crack down on the possible use of performance-enhancing drugs.
“We write regarding concerning reports that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) permitted Chinese swimmers who tested positive for performance enhancing drugs to compete at the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games in 2021. As we look to the Paris Summer 2024 Olympic Games, it is imperative that we ensure an even playing field for Team USA and all Olympic athletes,” Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Ranking Member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, wrote in the letter, which is first reported by NBC News.
In the letter addressed to Witold Bańka, the president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, the two senators demand a series of documents related to 23 Chinese swimmers who, according to a recent New York Times report, tested positive for a banned heart medication but were allowed to compete in the Tokyo Olympics.
The document request includes all communications with China’s anti-doping agency and the entire case files provided to external counsel during the appeals process. The senators also ask for the “terms of reference” the agency provided to special prosecutor Eric Cottier, who was tapped to review the case, and meeting minutes from all executive committee meetings of the World Anti-Doping Agency since 2019.
China's Anti-Doping Agency, known as CHINADA, has dismissed the scandal as “false accusations and misleading, defamatory reports.” Chinada has said officials found traces of the banned substance TMZ at a Shijiazhuang hotel location where the swimmers tested positive and were staying for the national meet. They labeled it “an isolated mass incident caused by athletes’ unknowing consumption of food contaminated with TMZ,” and said those involved bear “no fault or negligence.” Chinese officials have also denied the doping allegations.
WADA has defended its decision not to take action, saying it had “no concrete basis to challenge the asserted contamination” and called media reports about the episode “misleading.”
Cantwell and Cruz end by asking the World Anti-Doping Agency head what measure the organization will take “to ensure fair competition” and how the organization will “ensure transparency and coordination between individual countries’ Anti-Doping Agencies leading up to the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games.”
They give the agency a deadline of July 5 to respond.
The issue has drawn significant interest on Capitol Hill, with a House panel slated to hear testimony from swimmers Michael Phelps and Allison Schmitt in a hearing next week titled “Examining Anti-Doping Measures in Advance of the 2024 Olympics.”
Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., the Energy & Commerce Committee’s ranking member, said it’s “outrageous the World Anti-Doping Agency refuses to testify before my Committee next week,” and accused the organization of “hiding from accountability.”
NBC News is a division NBCUniversal, which owns the U.S. media rights to the Olympic Games through 2032, including the 2024 Paris Games which begin on July 26.
“Athletes are rightly concerned about fair competition at the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games. It is imperative that WADA do everything in its power to ensure fair competition,” the senators wrote in the letter.
Explaining their jurisdiction, they added: “The Standing Rules of the Senate provide the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation the authority and duty to 'review and study, on a continuing basis' both sports and matters relating to agencies under the committee’s jurisdiction, including sports agencies such as the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.”
