Current:Home > StocksWhat is WADA, why is the FBI investigating it and why is it feuding with US anti-doping officials? -Triumph Financial Guides
What is WADA, why is the FBI investigating it and why is it feuding with US anti-doping officials?
View
Date:2025-04-19 03:52:57
PARIS (AP) — The feuding this week among officials in the Olympics, the anti-doping world and the United States government over eradicating drugs from sports is hardly new. They’ve been going at it for decades.
The tension reached a new level on the eve of the Paris Games when the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2034 Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City but inserted language in the contract demanding its leaders pressure the U.S. government to lobby against an anti-conspiracy law passed in 2020.
There’s virtually no chance that either the law will be overturned or that the IOC would pull the rug from Salt Lake City. Still, the rhetoric keeps flowing. A look at the main characters and issues:
What is WADA?
The World Anti-Doping Agency was formed after the International Olympic Committee called for changes in the wake of some of sports’ most sordid drug-cheating episodes — among them, Ben Johnson’s drug-tainted ouster from the Seoul Games in 1988 and a doping scandal at the 1998 Tour de France.
Canadian lawyer Richard Pound, a heavyweight in the Olympic movement, became WADA’s founding president in 1999, launching the agency one year ahead of the Sydney Olympics.
Who funds and runs WADA?
In 2024, the Montreal-based agency has a budget of about $53 million. The IOC’s contribution of $25 million is matched by the collective contributions of national governments worldwide.
Some say the IOC’s 50% contribution gives it too much say in WADA’s decision-making and a chance to run roughshod over the way it runs its business.
The power of governments is diluted because several dozen countries make up the other half of the funding, with no single nation accounting for much more than about 3% of the budget.
What does WADA do?
The agency describes its mission as to “develop, harmonize and coordinate anti-doping rules and policies across all sports and countries.”
It does not collect and test urine and blood samples from athletes. It does certify the sports bodies, national anti-doping agencies and worldwide network of testing laboratories that do.
It drafts, reviews and updates the rules that govern international sports and manages the list of prohibited substances.
WADA also runs its own investigations and intelligence unit, which has broad scope to get involved in cases worldwide.
WADA vs. The IOC
An IOC vice president, Craig Reedie, was WADA’s leader in 2016 when the Russian doping scandal erupted weeks before the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Reedie and Pound, who had led a key investigation of the Russian cheating system, wanted Russia out of the Rio Olympics. IOC President Thomas Bach did not.
At a heated IOC meeting in Rio, Bach won a near-unanimous vote that allowed Russia to compete. It was a severe undercutting of Reedie and, some say, WADA.
What is the Rodchenkov Act?
American authorities were upset with the IOC and WADA handling of the Russian case, so they moved to pass a law named after Grigory Rodchenkov, the former Moscow lab director who became a whistleblower and eventually fled to the United States as a protected witness.
The Rodchenkov Act gave the U.S. government authority to investigate “doping conspiracies” in sports events that involve U.S. athletes, which brings the Olympics and most international events under its umbrella.
It agitated WADA and IOC officials, who don’t want the U.S. enforcing its own anti-doping code. They lobbied against it, but in a sign of WADA’s standing in the United States, the bill passed without a single dissenting vote in 2020.
Why is this coming up now?
Earlier this month, U.S. authorities issued a subpoena to an international swimming official who could have information about the case involving Chinese swimmers who were allowed to compete despite testing positive. WADA did not pursue the case.
With the Summer Games coming to Los Angeles in 2028, then the Winter Games in Utah in 2034, it will be hard for world sports leaders to avoid coming to the U.S., where they, too, could face inquiries from law enforcement.
___
AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
veryGood! (61737)
Related
- Tree trimmer dead after getting caught in wood chipper at Florida town hall
- Stock market today: Asian shares mostly fall as dive for Big Tech stocks hits Wall St rally
- Climate change is making days longer, according to new research
- Last Chance for Amazon Prime Day 2024 Deals: Top Finds Under $25 on Beauty, Home, Travel, Kids & More
- Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Triathlon
- Chicago Sky trade Marina Mabrey to Connecticut Sun for two players, draft picks
- Old video and photos recirculate, falsely claiming Trump wasn't injured in shooting
- Lucas Turner: The Essence of Investing in U.S. Treasuries.
- Could your smelly farts help science?
- BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich returns to Bojangles menu along with WWE collectible item
Ranking
- Toyota to invest $922 million to build a new paint facility at its Kentucky complex
- Jack Black's bandmate, Donald Trump and when jokes go too far
- Pedro Hill: What is cryptocurrency
- Oregon authorities recover body of award-winning chef who drowned in river accident
- Travis Hunter, the 2
- Britney Spears Tells Osbourne Family to “F--k Off” After They Criticize Her Dance Videos
- President Joe Biden tests positive for COVID-19 while campaigning in Las Vegas, has ‘mild symptoms’
- Still empty a year later, Omaha’s new $27M juvenile jail might never open as planned
Recommendation
The Louvre will be renovated and the 'Mona Lisa' will have her own room
Pro-war Russian athletes allowed to compete in Paris Olympic games despite ban, group says
Prime Day 2024 Last Chance Deal: Get 57% Off Yankee Candles While You Still Can
Prime Day 2024 Last Chance Deal: Get 57% Off Yankee Candles While You Still Can
Will the 'Yellowstone' finale be the last episode? What we know about Season 6, spinoffs
Alabama set to execute man for fatal shooting of a delivery driver during a 1998 robbery attempt
FACT FOCUS: Trump, in Republican convention video, alludes to false claim 2020 election was stolen
Missouri high court clears the way for a woman’s release after 43 years in prison