US investigating Chinese swimmers’ doping case

Lausanne – World Aquatics executive director Brent Nowicki has been subpoenaed by the United States government to testify in an investigation into how 23 Chinese swimmers avoided punishment after testing positive for banned drugs weeks ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.

A US House of Representatives committee in May called on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to launch inquiries ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics into the doping case that has rocked the sport.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) has come under increasing criticism and pressure to provide answers on how those swimmers,

some of whom went on to win gold medals in Tokyo

, escaped punishment.

“World Aquatics can confirm that its executive director, Brent Nowicki, was served with a witness subpoena by the United States government,” World Aquatics said in a statement to Reuters.

“He is working to schedule a meeting with the government, which, in all likelihood, will obviate the need for testimony before a grand jury.”

The FBI, in a statement to Reuters on July 5, said it could not confirm or deny any investigation.

Representatives for the US DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Wada said it was aware of the investigation, but had not been contacted by law enforcement and defended its handling of the case.

“Wada reviewed the Chinese swimmer case file diligently, consulted with scientific and legal experts, and ultimately determined that it was in no position to challenge the contamination scenario, such that an appeal was not warranted,” it said in a statement.

“Guided by science and expert consultations, we stand by that good-faith determination in the face of the incomplete and misleading news reports on which this investigation appears to be based.”

It is understood that an independent investigation of Wada’s handling of the case by Swiss prosecutor Eric Cottier could be published as early as next week.

The New York Times reported in April that the 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine, a medication that increases blood flow to the heart and is used to treat angina. The swimmers were cleared by a Chinese investigation, which said they were inadvertently exposed to the drug through food contamination.

Eleven of the Chinese swimmers are set to compete at the July 26-Aug 11 Paris Olympics.

In May, a US House of Representatives committee on China asked the country’s Justice Department and the FBI to look into the case under a law, named after Russian whistle-blower Grigory Rodchenkov, that allows investigations of suspected doping outside the US.

“The public reports about this investigation validate the concerns expressed broadly by the international community about the passage of the Rodchenkov Act, under which the United States purports to exercise extraterritorial criminal jurisdiction over participants in the global anti-doping system,” said Wada.

An investigation could also spark friction between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and US sports authorities, with the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles and Salt Lake City set to be confirmed as host of the 2034 Winter Games.

The IOC formed Wada in 1999 and is its biggest financial contributor, covering 50 per cent of annual operating costs.

Images of members of football’s world governing body Fifa being arrested on US corruption charges as they exited a Zurich hotel in 2015 remain fresh.

It is not a scene the IOC would like to see repeated with its members.

Canada’s former IOC member Dick Pound, who helped set up Wada and was its first president, said the US attempted similar tactics around the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic scandal trying to subpoena then president Juan Antonio Samaranch without success.
REUTERS, AFP