Senators from both parties on Tuesday sharply criticized the global antidoping regulator responsible for ensuring clean competition at the Olympics, saying it had continued to cover up positive tests for banned substances by two dozen elite Chinese swimmers, including medal winners at the last two Summer Games.
At a hearing before a subcommittee of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, Democratic and Republican lawmakers also signaled their support for the decisions by the Biden and Trump administrations to withhold key funding from the World Anti-Doping Agency, or WADA, over its handling of the positive tests.
The senators said they supported new legislation that would give the president even more authority to withhold American funding for the regulator.
“All that they have provided are threats, stonewalling and intimidation,” said Senator Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee and the subcommittee’s chair, adding that lawmakers would “not be threatened or silenced for promoting fair play and advocating for clean sport.”
Tuesday’s hearing was the second one the Senate has held on how the positive tests were handled, after The New York Times disclosed their existence in April 2024. The Times reported that in early 2021, nearly two dozen elite Chinese swimmers tested positive for low levels of a banned prescription heart medication that makes it easier for athletes to recover.
At the time, Chinese authorities blamed a contaminated hotel kitchen where the athletes ate, even though they were never able to explain how or why the prescription heart medication made its way into the kitchen. The World Anti-Doping Agency, which is supposed to serve as a backstop when countries fail to properly discipline their athletes, did not sanction the swimmers.
Around the time of the April 2024 New York Times article, the Justice Department and F.B.I. began investigating whether the tests were covered up, and whether antidoping and Chinese officials broke American law.
Despite pledging transparency, the World Anti-Doping Agency allowed the swimmers to compete at the 2024 Summer Games. The agency also left Dr. Rahul Gupta, the top White House drug official under President Joseph R. Biden Jr., unconvinced that it was serious about getting to the bottom of what occurred. In late 2024, Dr. Gupta withheld U.S. funding, which had accounted for the largest contribution from any country.
The Trump administration has not yet sent the money, leaving the agency with a significant budget shortfall — a position the senators appeared to endorse on Tuesday.
In one notable moment in the hearing, two top Republicans on the panel, Ms. Blackburn and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, criticized how the 2034 Winter Olympics was rewarded last summer to Salt Lake City.
Last July, just days before the opening ceremony of the Paris Games, Olympic officials staged a dramatic power play, publicly pressuring Gene Sykes, a member of the International Olympic Committee, and other American officials to end the federal investigations as a condition for receiving the bid.
Mr. Sykes and the other Americans gave in to those demands, and the bid was awarded to Salt Lake City.
“Why do you think WADA thought they could intimidate the U.S. and U.S. Olympic committee and the Salt Lake City officials?” Ms. Blackburn said. “And why was there capitulation?”
Mr. Cruz said: “It is shocking that WADA, whom we rely upon to ensure fair competition, not only refuses to be transparent and accountable, but appears to have made unfair demands of a United States city to stymie legitimate federal investigations into its role in the swimmer doping scandal.”
Travis Tygart, the head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency and a leader of the effort to hold the Chinese and WADA accountable for the positive tests, said that Americans had been cheated out of 18 medals by the Chinese swimmers who had tested positive for banned substances.
Katie McLaughlin — an American swimmer who was a member of a relay team that finished second at the 2021 Summer Olympics to a Chinese team — told lawmakers about how “it broke my heart” when she learned that the swimmers she had competed against had tested positive but were never disciplined.
“Because clean athletes carry the weight of sacrifice, discipline, and transparency,” she said in her written testimony. “And when that’s not honored, it undermines the whole point of what we’re fighting for.”
“What is particularly disheartening as well is to learn that the powers that be, WADA — who is supposed to be the ones holding everyone to the same standard — are not holding everyone accountable,” she added.
Steven Moity contributed reporting from Washington.
Michael S. Schmidt is an investigative reporter for The Times covering Washington. His work focuses on tracking and explaining high-profile federal investigations.
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