Doping-USADA calls for WADA overhaul amid Chinese swimming scandal

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said on Tuesday that the World Anti-Doping Agency must be overhauled to restore confidence in the global body ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics following its handling of a Chinese doping case.

USADA wants an independent prosecutor to review the case of 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive before the Tokyo Olympics began in 2021 but were not punished as WADA accepted Chinese authorities' explanation that their samples had been contaminated.

"Athletes and the public desperately need and deserve confidence in the global anti-doping system headed into these (Paris) Games," USADA said in a news release.

It called for: "governments to appoint an independent prosecutor to review the entire case file of the 23 positive tests and ensure that justice is delivered in these cases."

WADA, which held a two-hour media availability on Monday during which its senior officials defended the handling of the case, did not immediately respond when asked by Reuters to comment on USADA's demands.

The Chinese swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine months before the COVID-delayed Tokyo Olympics began in the Japanese capital in July 2021.

WADA was notified in June 2021 of the Chinese anti-doping organisation's decision to accept that the swimmers were exposed to the substance through contamination from spice containers in the kitchen of a hotel where they were staying.

The case file was made available to the WADA science department which determined the contamination scenario was not only plausible but that there was no concrete element to call it into question.

The head of USADA, Travis Tygart, said on Monday the swimmers should have been provisionally suspended, and his organisation kept up the pressure on WADA on