WADA defends pick of prosecutor under scrutiny in review of Chinese swimmers case

The World Anti-Doping Agency on Tuesday defended the "strong reputation" of its choice of veteran Swiss prosecutor Eric Cottier to review how it handled the case of positive doping tests by 23 Chinese swimmers.

Cottier is "entirely independent" of WADA and international sports, it said, even as scrutiny of him increased over his friendship with a longtime colleague who worked with the agency and his enquiries into German broadcaster ARD's previous investigation of a separate Olympic sport.

Cottier has been given until a few weeks before the start of the Paris Olympics in July to report on WADA's acceptance in 2021 — in the months before the Tokyo Olympics and 2022 Beijing Winter Games held in a public health lockdown — of Chinese authorities' explanation that the swimmers were contaminated by a banned heart medication found in a hotel kitchen.

Montreal-based WADA has since faced widespread skepticism from anti-doping officials, national swim teams and athlete groups about its decisions three years ago and picking Cottier.

For 17 years through 2022, Cottier was the attorney general of Vaud, the home canton (state) of the International Olympic Committee where WADA has its European office in Lausanne.

Choosing a prosecutor on the doorstep of the Olympic movement was "highly problematic," Swiss anti-corruption expert Mark Pieth told The Associated Press on Monday.

During the last 13 years that Cottier was chief public prosecutor, the Vaud police commander was Jacques Antenen, who also worked with WADA from 2018 until last December as supervising auditor of the doping watchdog's investigations team.

"I think it's highly problematic and it's totally unnecessary," Pieth said of WADA's selection process. "It shows they don't