U.S. Senate urged to keep pressure on WADA over China clash - ESPN

WASHINGTON — A panel of U.S. officials and experts urged a Senate subcommittee Tuesday to keep pressure on the World Anti-Doping Agency, saying the organization needs to make significant reforms to show it is not compromised by Chinese influence and money.

«WADA has failed to provide answers. All they have provided is threats, stonewalling and intimidation,» said subcommittee chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). «My colleagues and I will not be silenced or intimidated.»

The clash between U.S. officials as the world's top anti-doping authority started last year when media reports revealed that 23 Chinese swimmers went unpunished after testing positive in 2021 for a banned substance. WADA accepted Chinese athletic authorities' explanation that the swimmers had eaten tainted food, and the WADA did not report the incident publicly or to its own executive board. U.S. and some other western anti-doping officials called WADA's defense «absurd,» a word that WADA has used when defending allegations that its decision was corrupt or incorrect.

WADA officials declined an invitation to appear at the hearing; a committee source told ESPN that WADA's response was «a verbal, 'we're not engaging anymore.'» But in a blistering, lengthy response to ESPN, a WADA spokesman said the organization considered the hearing to be a distraction orchestrated by Travis Tygart, the CEO of the WADA's U.S. affiliate, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

«WADA will not be distracted by today's senate hearing, which is another political effort led by Travis Tygart… to leverage the senate and the media in a desperate effort to relitigate the Chinese swimming cases and misinform athletes and other stakeholders,» the statement read.

Tygart appeared before the committee