Senators’ letter follows NYT investigation that exposed how WADA allowed Chinese swimmers to compete during Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for banned drugs

Team USA to compete against same swimmers in Paris

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees sports, and Ranking Member Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sent a letter today to World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) President Witold Banka regarding a report that the agency allowed Chinese swimmers who tested positive for banned performance-enhancing drugs to compete at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. The senators demanded the agency provide a series of documents regarding the 2021 doping case, and called for action to guarantee fair competition for Team USA during the upcoming Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.

“We write regarding concerning reports that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) permitted Chinese swimmers who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs to compete at the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games in 2021. As we look to the Paris Summer 2024 Olympic Games, it is imperative that we ensure an even playing field for Team USA and all Olympic athletes,” the senators wrote.  

In April, the New York Times detailed how 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for the banned substance Trimetazidine prior to the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games. Following the positive tests, WADA declined to make them public or challenge the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency’s (CHINADA) assertion that the swimmers accidentally ingested the banned drugs during a hotel stay. The swimmers won several medals, including three golds, besting American swimmer Katie Ledecky. 

“WADA’s decision to accept CHINADA’s findings stands in stark contrast to its decision to challenge an initial exoneration by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency of a figure skater who tested positive for Trimetazidine because of ‘food/environmental contamination’ less than six months later,” they wrote. “The Russian figure skater was ultimately disqualified from the 2022 Olympic Winter Games and sanctioned with a four-year period of ineligibility. Meanwhile, many of the same Chinese swimmers who tested positive for Trimetazidine before the 2021 games are expected to compete in Paris this summer.” 

The senators requested that WADA provide the Commerce Committee with all documents received from CHINADA related to the incident, its full case file, and meeting minutes from all WADA executive committee meetings since 2019.

“Athletes are rightly concerned about fair competition at the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games. It is imperative that WADA do everything in its power to ensure fair competition,” the letter concluded.  

Read the full letter here and below:

June 21, 2024

Dear Mr. Banka:

We write regarding concerning reports that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) permitted Chinese swimmers who tested positive for performance enhancing drugs to compete at the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games in 2021. As we look to the Paris Summer 2024 Olympic Games, it is imperative that we ensure an even playing field for Team USA and all Olympic athletes.

Established in 1999 “as an international independent agency to lead a collaborative worldwide movement for doping-free sport,” one of the WADA’s core activities is to monitor and enforce compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code. Over 190 countries support that mission—the United States, for example, gave WADA $3.7 million in taxpayer funding in Fiscal Year 2024 and the White House has requested that Congress appropriate $3.84 million for WADA in Fiscal Year 2025. As the Chair and Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, we seek information regarding WADA’s decision to permit Chinese swimmers who tested positive for performance enhancing drugs to compete at the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games in 2021 and assurance that it will not do so with the upcoming Paris Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Recent reports revealed that WADA declined to exercise its authority to block doping Chinese athletes from competing in Tokyo in 2021. In January of that year, the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) performed drug tests on competitors at a national swim meet, 23 of whom tested positive for the performance enhancing drug, Trimetazidine. Three months later, CHINADA reported the positive tests to WADA. WADA, however, did not open an investigation until June 21—six days after CHINADA issued its determination that the swimmers had not violated anti-doping rules because they were “inadvertently . . . exposed to the substance through food/environment contamination as a result of [Trimetazidine] detected in the [hotel] kitchen (including spice containers [and] the extraction fan above the hob and the drains).”CHINADA did not address how Trimetazidine—a manufactured pharmaceutical drug that can increase stamina and endurance—popped up in the spice jars of a commercial kitchen.

Less than a month after opening an investigation into the Chinese swimmers, WADA claimed to have “no basis under the World Anti-Doping Code to challenge CHINADA’s findings of environmental/food contamination.” As a result, several of the Chinese swimmers who tested positive for Trimetazidine not only competed in the 2021 Olympics, but also won medals, including three gold medals. WADA’s decision to accept CHINADA’s findings stands in stark contrast to its decision to challenge an initial exoneration by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency of a figure skater who tested positive for Trimetazidine because of “food/environmental contamination” less than six months later. The Russian figure skater was ultimately disqualified from the 2022 Olympic Winter Games and sanctioned with a four-year period of ineligibility. Meanwhile, many of the same Chinese swimmers who tested positive for Trimetazidine before the 2021 games are expected to compete in Paris this summer.

Athletes are rightly concerned about fair competition at the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games. It is imperative that WADA do everything in its power to ensure fair competition. The Standing Rules of the Senate provide the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation the authority and duty to “review and study, on a continuing basis” both sports and matters relating to agencies under the committee’s jurisdiction, including sports agencies such as the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. So that the Committee may better understand WADA’s review and dismissal of the 2021 Chinese swimming athlete doping cases and how it will ensure fairness in the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games, we request that you provide the following documents and written responses to the following questions no later than July 5, 2024.

1. All documents WADA received from CHINADA referring or relating to the 23 Chinese swimmers, including the full case file WADA requested from CHINADA on June 21, 2021.
2. The complete case file concerning the 23 Chinese swimmers WADA sent to external counsel during the 21-day appeal deadline.
3. “All available scientific evidence and intelligence, which was gathered, assessed, and tested by experts in the pharmacology of TMZ; and, by anti-doping experts” that WADA reviewed in determining whether it had a basis to challenge CHINADA’s findings.
4. The terms of reference WADA provided to the special prosecutor, Eric Cottier.
5. Meeting minutes from all WADA executive committee meetings from 2019 through present.
6. What measures will WADA take in the months leading up to the Summer 2024 Paris Olympic Games to ensure fair competition?
7. How will WADA ensure transparency and coordination between individual countries’ Anti-Doping Agencies leading up to the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games?

Sincerely,

Maria Cantwell, Chair

Ted Cruz, Ranking Member