The USADA (USADA) Anti -Doping Agency said that it “fully supports” the US government’s decision to retain a payment of $ 3.6 million (2.8 million pounds of major doping scandal.
News emerged in April 2024 that 23 Chinese swimmers were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021 despite having been tested positive for a prohibited heart medication – called Trimétazidine – During the previous months.
The country’s own anti -doping agency determined that the athletes had involuntarily ingested the substance, with the Wada, later saying that it was “not able to refute” this assertion.
The CEO of the USADA, Travis Tygart, made a declaration on the refusal of payment, claiming that it was “the only good choice to protect the rights, responsibility and equitable competition of athletes”.
He added that the wada “left the United States without further option after failing to submit several very reasonable requests, such as an independent audit of [its] operations, to achieve the necessary transparency and responsibility ”.
The AMA responded to this declaration by saying that American representatives could not now sit on its foundation board of directors or its executive committee.
At the time of the emergence of the scandal, Wada said that it had been taken in “geopolitical tensions” between the two countries, an independent investigation later concluding that the agency had not managed the case, and She had shown no bias towards Chinese swimmers.
The Tygart Declaration has added: “Since the exposure of AMA management of the 23 positive tests of the 23 Chinese swimmers who gave China and its athletes special treatment under the rules, of Many stakeholders around the world – including athletes, governments and national anti -doping agencies – have sought responses, transparency and responsibility for the AMA management.
“Because the AMA has failed to apply uniformly the global rules in place to protect the integrity of the competition and the rights of athletes to equity, an important AMA reform must occur to guarantee that It does not happen again. “
The United States has been the most funded government partner in the AMA since the agency’s creation in 2000, and the country will host the next Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028.
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