The war of words between the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) President, Travis T. Tygart, and Witold Bańka, the President of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), continues. To quote Elvis Costello from 1977, who is “Watching the Detectives?”
Twenty-three Chinese swimmers test positive
Twenty-three Chinese swimmers, 11 of whom competed at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, were cleared. Their defence was a contaminated meat story. Test results showed that all 23 tested positive for trimetazidine, a banned performance-enhancing drug.
In a separate 2022 incident, athletes Tang Muhan and He Junyi both tested positive and were exonerated. The claim is that they ingested PEDs after eating French fries and hamburgers at a restaurant in Beijing. They claimed the positive test came from the burger meat.
The Chinese Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) ruled that the steroid came from contaminated meat in the burgers. The organization cleared the two athletes.
No one outside of China believes the story of the contaminated meat. Those old enough to remember the tale of Ma’s Army will roll their eyes. Ma Junren’s athletes, who broke several world records in closed track meets in Shanghai and Beijing, admitted to doping. The 23 swimmers’ positive tests smell of systematic doping.
There have been many cases of athletes doping en masse with the same PED.
In 2013, 31 Turkish athletes tested positive in an out-of-competition test. The positive tests found that athletes were using primarily two anabolic steroids, stanozolol and turinabol. The list of dopers includes Olympic gold medallist Asli Cakir Alptekin.
Russia has been banned as a nation for systematic doping. East Germany may have had the most intense systematic doping program in history. Additionally, there are nations like India and Kenya with chaotic doping programs. There are potentially rogue agents, coaches and desperate athletes who can easily get their hands on PEDs. And desperate athletes can be coerced into informing authorities.
The Kenyan athlete who blew the whistle on widespread doping in the country in 2012 was distance runner Mathew Kisorio. This was only after he failed a drug test.
Kisorio tested positive for an anabolic steroid in June 2012. He alleged that doping was “rife” among his fellow Kenyan athletes, claiming that doctors were providing banned substances to runners at a high-altitude training base. His information prompted Kenya’s athletics authorities to launch an investigation into the claims.
Currently, there are accusations that a Kenyan athlete has informed USADA and the DEA as recently as 2024. Apparently, exposing a doping ring in Kenya.
Indian Aman Malik has been sentenced to three years in a Kenyan prison. He was convicted of possessing and trafficking banned PEDs in an area used as a training base for Kenyan athletes.
The Chinese Swimming Federation and Chinese Anti-Doping Agency should be investigated just as the Russian federations were.
USADA’s alleged informants
USADA has faced accusations of supporting dopers. It is alleged that USADA used athletes as confidential informants in exchange for reduced suspensions.
USADA defended their position, saying other federations were aware of the athletes’ cooperation. The agency maintains that it is necessary for federal law enforcement (FBI and DEA) investigations into significant drug trafficking schemes. USADA maintains its priority is to target organized doping, rather than focusing on individual athletes. This is an approach they argue is ultimately more effective in protecting clean sport.
Recent reports in 2024 point to USADA permitting athletes who had committed anti-doping rule violations to continue competing. This is alleged to be without public sanctions, in exchange for their cooperation as informants.
An official from WADA assisted in a controversial investigation by USADA. This allegedly involved recruiting athletes to provide information on potential dopers.
It is also alleged that a Kenyan runner became an undercover agent. This and the 23 swimmers have sparked a war of words between the agencies.
Who is watching the detectives?
It is confusing for the public to know where the boundaries of the rules are. They have the right to know. For example, the WADA-created Athletics Integrity Unit will reduce the length of a suspension when an athlete admits fault. But using an informant is not okay if they have doped, and certainly not if they receive a benefit from doing so. For example, continued racing while cheating.
However, the recently departed Victor Conte is alleged to have provided information to USADA. He was the creator of Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative. The cooperative was better known as BALCO. BALCO supplied athletes with banned substances, including Barry Bonds, Marion Jones, Lance Armstrong and many other notorious American dopers.
Conte maintained that he never became a snitch; he was open about who he supplied drugs to.
After serving a four-month prison sentence for conspiracy to distribute steroids and money laundering, Conte became a vocal anti-doping advocate. He offered to help clean up the sport by sharing his knowledge of doping loopholes with anti-doping agencies. In this capacity, he provided extensive information about doping practices. This can be construed as acting as an “informant” in the general sense of sharing intelligence. His intent was allegedly to improve testing, therefore, being altruistic in his rebirth as an anti-doping advocate.
Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory, fled to the United States in 2016. He went on to provide detailed evidence to WADA and news organizations. The details of which led to investigations (including the McLaren Report), which confirmed his claims of a systematic, state-run doping with the help of Russian intelligence services.
Vitaly Stepanov, a doping control officer with RUSADA, began sending information and evidence to WADA in 2010. His wife, an 800m runner who had also used banned substances, was involved. She secretly recorded conversations with coaches and officials discussing doping practices.
The combined evidence of hundreds of emails and hidden videos informed the explosive German documentary by ARD TV in 2014. This led to a major WADA investigation and subsequent reports that detailed the vast extent of the Russian doping conspiracy.
Is USADA using the same tactics as WADA did in investigating BALCO and Russia?
This may require an investigation to determine if a legal precedent is being established by WADA. A precedent of using former dopers for their benefit without payment or favours. In contrast, WADA is alleging that USADA is allowing athletes to continue to compete in exchange for their information.
