Squabble grows as U.S. government holds back 2024 funding from World Anti-Doping Agency

The U.S. government did not pay the more than $3.6 million US due to the World Anti-Doping Agency in 2024, making good on a long-running threat anchored in unhappiness with the global watchdog's handling of cases involving Chinese swimmers and others.

Those funds, normally distributed by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, represent about six per cent of WADA's annual budget.

WADA statutes say representatives of countries that don't pay are not eligible to sit on the agency's top decision-making panels. U.S. drug czar Rahul Gupta is listed as a member of the WADA executive committee.

Gupta's office did not immediately respond to requests from The Associated Press for comment.

When Gupta directed his office to send the balance of a yearly contribution in 2022, he did so with reservations, along with a letter saying the U.S. absence at the time from key policymaking positions was "a sorry state of affairs."

Half of WADA's budget is covered by the International Olympic Committee, with the other half covered by governments across the world, which receive 50 per cent of the spots on key WADA governing committees.

The U.S. contribution is double that of Canada, the home country for WADA that puts in the second most money among the more than 180 countries that contribute.

The funding fight has been going on for at least the last six years. Dissatisfied over the handling of the Russian doping scandal, the first Trump White House started asking for reforms with the potential of tying them to its annual payment. More recently, WADA's handling of cases involving 23 Chinese swimmers has been a focal point of criticism.

A government study that came out in 2020 concluded Americans didn't get their money's worth