{"id":388184,"date":"2024-04-26T00:53:23","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T00:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=388184"},"modified":"2024-04-26T04:04:17","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T04:04:17","slug":"prosecutor-probing-wadas-china-doping-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=388184","title":{"rendered":"Prosecutor probing WADA's China doping scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heavily criticised for its secretive oversight of positive tests by 23 Chinese swimmers<\/a> before the Tokyo Olympics<\/a>, the World Anti-Doping Agency<\/a> appointed a veteran Swiss prosecutor to review how it handled the cases.<\/p>\n

The Montreal-based doping watchdog said Eric Cottier will be an independent prosecutor \u201cto conduct a thorough review of WADA\u2019s handling of the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cottier was attorney general of Vaud \u2014 the home canton (state) of the International Olympic Committee and swimming\u2019s governing body World Aquatics \u2014 for 17 years until his retirement in December 2022.<\/p>\n

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The prosecutor is expected to deliver a report, WADA said, \u201cwithin two months\u201d \u2014 just weeks before the opening of the Paris Olympics where some of the same Chinese swimmers could compete.<\/p>\n

Three of the 23 swimmers later won gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics where American and British swimmers took the silver medals. The Games were held in 2021.<\/p>\n

\"Sun<\/p>\n

It was unclear if Cottier will travel to China to question people involved in the 2021 investigation.<\/p>\n

One of WADA's top critics, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, put out a news release calling the announcement \u201cself-serving\u201d and questioning the independence of the investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy calling this an \u2018independent\u2019 investigation, WADA leadership is trying to pull the wool over our eyes,\u201d the release said. \u201cInstead of WADA\u2019s hand-picked lawyer with a limited and self-serving scope of review, the world\u2019s athletes deserve a truly independent review commission with a wide scope of review.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cottier\u2019s report will go to the executive committee of WADA. Its vice president Yang Yang is a two-time Olympic gold medallist in speed skating from China and a former IOC member.<\/p>\n

Investigations by the New York Times and German broadcaster ARD published over the weekend detailed how top swimmers from China tested positive for the same banned heart medication in January 2021 at a national meet about seven months before the Tokyo Games.<\/p>\n

\"Rebels<\/p>\n

Chinese state authorities later explained to WADA it found evidence weeks after of contamination, including in spice containers, in the kitchen of a hotel where the swimmers stayed. It is still unclear how traces of the medication trimetazidine (TMZ) got into the kitchen.<\/p>\n

WADA accepted the explanation and the Chinese anti-doping agency rulings that the swimmers were not to blame in 2021 when its own investigators could not travel to China during a lockdown in the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

The swimmers never served provisional suspensions during the investigation and their positive tests were never made public until the past week.<\/p>\n

The Times and ARD revelations have angered athletes, swim federations and anti-doping officials worldwide who suspect favorable treatment for China, which has paid WADA almost $2 million in extra funding in recent years.<\/p>\n

\"Young<\/p>\n

Throughout 2021, China was working closely with the IOC on the challenging preparations to host the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February 2022. They were successfully staged in lockdown conditions.<\/p>\n

WADA leaders insisted at a 90-minute news conference Monday they had followed their rules and due process in world sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cWADA\u2019s integrity and reputation is under attack,\u201d its president Witold Ba\u0144ka, a former 400-meter runner from Poland, said Thursday in a statement.<\/p>\n

Banka said WADA was \u201cunfairly accused of bias in favour of China\u201d by not appealing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne to challenge decisions that cleared the swimmers.<\/p>\n

The agency said Cottier \u201cwill be granted full and unfettered access to all of WADA\u2019s files and documents related to this matter and will be free to consult with any independent experts as he sees fit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Heavily criticised for its secretive oversight of positive tests by 23 Chinese swimmers before the Tokyo Olympics, the World Anti-Doping Agency appointed a veteran Swiss […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":387195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388184"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=388184"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":388189,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388184\/revisions\/388189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/387195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=388184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=388184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=388184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}