(Los Angeles) The American Anti-Doping Agency has accused the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) of having implicated American athletes to create a diversion at a time when his institution is shaken by the revelations about the 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive, but never sanctioned before the Tokyo Olympics.
In a statement released Monday, the American Agency (USADA) responded to comments made by Witold Banka during an extraordinary meeting of the founding board of the World Anti-Doping Agency and accused him of having distorted the facts “to “to distract from the questions the world is asking about how WADA allowed China to sweep 23 positive tests under the rug.”
On Friday, WADA assured that these 23 Chinese swimmers, tested positive a few months before the Tokyo Olympics, had been victims of a case of food contamination, and not doped, and had accused USADA, very virulent in this matter. , “lies” and called on the United States to strengthen its anti-doping system.
Witold Banka also cited on Friday the case of three American athletes who tested positive, and for whom it was recognized that they had also been victims of external contamination, like the Chinese swimmers.
The American Agency responded to him on Monday, recalling that these cases had been made public, unlike the case of the Chinese swimmers, revealed a few weeks ago by the New York Times and the German channel ARD, and that the athletes in question had been sanctioned.
USADA also responded to the assertions of Witold Banka, who pointed out on Friday that 90% of American athletes, in professional leagues or university sports, did not take part in competitions respecting the world anti-doping code.
“These comments are harmful for all the athletes in these leagues and for these leagues themselves,” criticized the American body, recalling that the NBA (basketball), the NFL (football) and the MLB (baseball) had their own anti-doping regulations.
“There is nothing more classic when you want to hide something than to create a diversion and throw smoke and mirrors. And the second most classic response when you want to conceal something is to try to silence the messenger, and this is currently the case: Banka and his representatives are sinking into disinformation and half-truths to launching personal attacks, going so far as to throw a contract at the heads of American athletes,” concludes USADA.
To try to put out the fire born from the revelations on the case of the 23 Chinese swimmers, three months before the Paris Olympics, on April 25, WADA appointed an independent prosecutor to examine its management of the case.