The World Anti-Doping Agency’s executive board on Thursday eagerly embraced a report that validated its decision to clear 23 elite Chinese swimmers of doping, even as the report’s author pointed out Chinese officials had violated established rules in their handling of the incident.
The final report, written by a Swiss prosecutor, Eric Cottier, who was handpicked by WADA, effectively absolved the global antidoping regulator of wrongdoing in its handling of the Chinese case, which had drawn scorn from Olympic athletes, prompted skepticism from global antidoping experts and sparked a bitter feud with the Biden administration.
The decision to quietly clear the athletes, without ever revealing their positive tests, had hung like a cloud over the pool deck at the Paris Olympics and raised broader concerns over the efficacy of the global antidoping system.
Mr. Cottier also concluded that there had been no bias toward China in the handling of the swimmers’ cases. And he appeared to dismiss reporting by The New York Times and other organizations that has challenged WADA’s actions in multiple so-called mass contamination events involving Chinese swimmers while simultaneously recommending that antidoping officials move to tighten their rules and processes related to such cases.
Yet the report provided no definitive conclusion to the underlying question of doping by Chinese athletes, and nothing to assuage fears of a conspiracy that continues to proliferate in elite swimming. “The sense of justice or injustice,” the report said, “goes far beyond the scope of this investigation.”
Controversy and uncertainty had hovered over the board meeting at a Turkish resort amid attempts to bar a Biden administration official who sits on the WADA board from any discussions of the Chinese case. That battle began after an anonymous complaint charged that the official, Dr. Rahul Gupta, the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, had a conflict of interest because the F.B.I. has begun investigation into the swimming cases.
In the end Dr. Gupta, who is on the board as the representative of more than 40 countries in the Americas, was allowed to participate, but only after two days of tense discussions on the eve of the board meeting led to WADA leaders withdrawing the allegations against him.
Dr. Gupta, who arrived at the meetings with government lawyers prepared to take up his cause, had already won the backing of the leaders of the other regional blocs, public bodies that make up half of WADA’s board and contribute a similar amount of its funding.
The Chinese case has seriously harmed WADA’s reputation among many of its stakeholders, but the agency retains backing of the International Olympic Committee, whose representatives were involved in the talks that headed off a confrontation with the Americans at the board meeting.
The Chinese doping cases had been kept secret until April, when The Times revealed that about two dozen of China’s best swimmers had all tested positive for the same banned heart drug at a domestic meet in early 2021. The swimmers were quietly cleared of wrongdoing by Chinese investigators, who blamed their cases on a contaminated hotel kitchen. WADA accepted the Chinese version of events and did not undertake its own investigation, allowing several of them to the compete in — and win medals at — both the Tokyo and Paris Olympics.
Mr. Cottier had telegraphed his conclusions in the case in July, when he released an interim version of his report on the eve of the Paris Olympics that found no wrongdoing by WADA.
In the final version released on Thursday, Mr. Cottier rebuked one player in the case, China’s national antidoping agency, but said its actions had no effect on his findings. “As far as the Chinese agency is concerned, it is clear that certain rules of the World Anti-Doping Code have not been applied,” he wrote. “This is regrettable, but in the end, it does not change the outcome of the cases and the acceptance of the contamination hypothesis.”
Still, parts of the 56-page report are likely to raise yet more concerns about WADA’s conduct. It found that the group’s internal investigations department “was not involved in the handling of the case” from March 2021, when the Chinese first revealed the positive tests to WADA, through to August of that year, by which time the investigation was closed.
Critics like the head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, Travis Tygart, noted that Mr. Cottier’s mandate meant he had to accept “the same facts WADA accepted without doing any independent investigation.” Despite those limits, Mr. Tygart said, “This report validates the concerns we have had that WADA allowed China to have special treatment under the rules.”
Dr. Gupta and others were able to ask questions of Mr. Cottier on Thursday. But representatives of public bodies on the WADA board said they were unable to commit to a final position and asked for more time to study the document.
The publication of the report is unlikely to bring the type of closure WADA’s embattled leadership is seeking. The criminal investigation in the U.S. remains ongoing, and Congress has also been asking searching questions of the agency. Both have cited a law that grants U.S. officials the authority to criminally prosecute coaches, trainers, doctors and sports officials involved in facilitating doping, even if their actions took place outside the United States.
That law has infuriated global sports officials, who have long feared both prosecution in the U.S. and the introduction of similar laws elsewhere.
The back and forth has led to the relationship between the antidoping body and the United States, its biggest backer outside of the International Olympic Committee, coming close to falling apart entirely, with officials in the U.S. publicly talking about withdrawing funding and WADA increasingly vocal in its criticism of American doping policies.
Sports officials at the meeting and board members picked by the I.O.C. have in recent days pressed WADA’s management to improve its dialogue with its American partners. The United States will host the next summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028 and a coming Winter Games in Salt Lake City in 2034.
At Thursday’s meeting, WADA board agreed to set up subcommittee that would turn the findings of Mr. Cottier’s report into policy changes. “This includes strengthening WADA’s internal processes,” it said in a statement.
Officials also discussed the need for WADA to strengthen its approach to crisis management and communication. Since the story of the Chinese tests first broke in April, WADA has repeatedly released fiery statements aimed at both the news media and persistent critics like the United States Antidoping Agency.
That edginess was apparent in Turkey, where WADA’s director of communications, Catherine Maclean, asked that a New York Times reporter leave the luxury resort where the meeting was being held, and where a one-night stay can cost more than $1,500.
Marcos Diaz, a former member of the WADA executive committee, expressed surprise that the news media were barred from the board meeting, explaining that even during the height of a recent Russian doping scandal there was “space for the press.”
“It will raise questions,” Mr. Diaz said. “We believe as people from public service, people from government, we must be transparent.”
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