By Steve Keating
PARIS (Reuters) – The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee chief on Thursday urged the warring American and world anti-doping bodies to work together while assuring Olympic officials they will support WADA as the supreme anti-doping authority.
The USOPC, along with the 2028 Los Angeles and 2034 Salt Lake City Olympic host committees have been caught in the crossfire in an increasingly bitter feud between the World Anti-Doping Agency and the United States Anti-Doping Agency, who were shown the red card by Olympic officials.
The International Olympic Committee has issued a stern warning to U.S. sports officials: support WADA as the global leader in the fight against doping or risk losing the Games.
The IOC awarded Salt Lake City the 2034 Winter Games on Wednesday but said in an amendment in the host city contract that it could terminate the Olympic host contract “in cases where the supreme authority of WADA in the fight against doping is not fully respected or if the application of the anti-doping code is hindered or undermined.”
“I’ll say this as clearly as I can – we accept, we support, we subscribe to the world anti-doping code,” USOPC board chair Gene Sykes told reporters.
“What we want to do is to cool the tempers and find a way for these organisations to constructively work better together, and that’s our responsibility.
“That amendment is actually something we think we’ll never have come into play.
“The amendment is only an amendment that allows the IOC to have an escape clause if the United States somehow undermines it with the world anti-doping code.
“We’re not going to do that, we’re going to try to make it stronger.”
The WADA and USADA feud escalated on Wednesday when Reuters reported that the global body was taking the U.S. agency to the Independent Compliance Review Committee (CRC) next month in a landmark move that could jeopardise the country hosting the 2028 and 2034 Olympics.
WADA is taking the step as a result of a dispute with USADA over its handling of a case involving 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned substance in 2021.
The move would be the first time WADA has taken the U.S. anti-doping body to the CRC and could have huge implications for global sport given the U.S.’s huge commercial influence.
Any country wanting to compete in or stage an international sporting event must be compliant with the world anti-doping code, meaning if the review went against the U.S. it would have to forfeit participating in and hosting the Olympics.
“At the heart of this dispute lies a sense that USADA has that the World Anti-Doping Agency hasn’t followed the procedures that they should follow,” said USOPC’s Sykes, referring to the Chinese swimmers case. “That has led to a very intense argument.
“They’ve been playing a game of ping pong with media bullets, if you will, and it’s obviously been distressing.
“It’s been especially distressing to the international sports movement, because they see this as something that undermines the United States’ acceptance of the world anti-doping code.
“We at the USOPC believe there will be a solution to this dispute.”
(Reporting by Steve Keating in Paris; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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