The Chinese Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) on Friday strongly criticized the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and the New York Times for what it described as “false claims” regarding a contamination case involving 23 Chinese swimmers. In a statement, CHINADA accused USADA and certain media outlets of fabricating allegations of a “cover-up” and condemned the U.S. for exercising “long-arm jurisdiction” over the matter.
The statement followed the presentation of the final report by Independent Prosecutor Eric Cottier to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) executive committee meeting. The report addressed the no-fault contamination cases involving the Chinese swimmers.
“The Independent Prosecutor’s final report once again shows the reasonableness of CHINADA’s investigation into and decision on the cases,” the statement read. “It proves there is no such thing as a ‘cover-up’ in the cases as deliberately fabricated and unfoundedly accused by certain organizations and media outlets like the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), the New York Times, and the German broadcaster ARD.”
CHINADA emphasized that the report reaffirmed WADA’s decision not to appeal the cases was reasonable and that there was no evidence of any intervention or interference from any entity or institution, including CHINADA or Chinese authorities.
“The existing anti-doping system is open, transparent, and trustworthy to athletes worldwide,” CHINADA stated, highlighting its collaboration with WADA and FINA (now known as World Aquatics) during the investigation, even amid challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Criticizing USADA for politicizing the issue, CHINADA condemned the initiation of the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, calling it an act of “long-arm jurisdiction.”
“Such a ‘double standard’ behavior of attempting to overstep the boundaries of jurisdiction over other countries while turning a blind eye to its long history of doping problems has aroused widespread concern in the international community,” CHINADA asserted.
In a surprising turn, CHINADA also called for targeted testing of American swimmers, referencing the “purple faces” observed during the Paris Olympic Games.
“We have noticed the ‘purple faces’ of the American swimmers during the Paris Olympic Games that no athletes from other countries had,” the statement said. “There have been various speculations and doubts about the ‘purple faces’ from media worldwide, such as the use of some prohibited substances that are difficult to detect at present (ITPP for example), which we found not unreasonable.”
CHINADA called on relevant anti-doping organizations to conduct targeted testing of these American swimmers and advocated for long-term storage and reanalysis of samples when new detection methods become available to “clear up the public doubts.”
(With input from Xinhua)
Reference(s):
China condemns 'false claims' about swimmers' contamination case
cgtn.com
