MONTREAL: Reflecting on a turbulent year for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), marked by controversies over Chinese swimmers and Jannik Sinner, its president in an interview with AFP pushed back against “unfair, defamatory attacks.”

Last spring, the sports watchdog was severely criticised for clearing swimmers who tested positive for trimetazidine to compete at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

The Montreal-headquartered agency had accepted Chinese authorities’ explanation that their 23 athletes had eaten contaminated food at a hotel.

WADA president Witold Banka insists the case is now “definitively” closed since an independent report found “there was no bias towards China”.

“There was no wrongdoing on our side,” he added.

Banka accused US officials who raised those concerns of politicizing the case and making “very unfair, defamatory attacks on WADA.” Even if tensions have subsided, he admits that relations with the US Anti-Doping Agency remain “quite difficult,” insisting that “one stakeholder cannot impose its vision [for] how the system should work”.

“Whether someone likes it or not, WADA is the body responsible for the anti-doping system in the world,” he said.

The US, when it hosts the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028 and the Winter Games in Salt Lake City in 2034 “will need to collaborate with us,” he said.

A termination clause was inserted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) into the Salt Lake City host contract that could see the Games pulled if WADA’s “supreme authority” is not respected.

The other controversy that has shook the sports world this year revolved around the issue of transparency.

Many criticised the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) for having revealed late Jannik Sinner’s positive tests for the anabolic clostebol twice in March 2024, and those of the world No. 2 Iga Swiatek for trimetazidine in August, but announced only in November.

WADA director general Olivier Niggli said these highlighted conflicting priorities of “protecting an athlete’s reputation and the general public’s need or expectation of transparency. Where do we draw the line?”

“The protection of an athlete’s reputation should be our first concern,” he believes. “We live in a world where social networks are what they are and mean that a reputation can go up in smoke in a very, very short time.”

In reference to the case of Jannik Sinner, the world’s No. 1 tennis player, Niggli also believes that the world of sport must consider supervising athletes’ entourage.

“We have many requests for strengthening the consequences for the entourage” and for “real monitoring of these people,” he adds.

It is a question of the athlete’s responsibility towards his entourage that prompted WADA to appeal to the court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), a month after a preliminary decision largely cleared the Italian player.

“Our appeal is not intended to challenge the scenario that was presented by the athlete,” namely that the drug entered his system when his physiotherapist used a spray containing it to treat a cut, then provided massage and sports therapy to the Italian player.

“Our position is that the athlete still has a responsibility towards those around him,” Niggli told AFP.

“So this is the legal point that will be debated” before the CAS next year.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2024