Statistical validity of tests Professor Donald A. Berry has argued that the closed systems used by anti-doping agencies do not allow statistical validation of the tests. This argument was seconded by an accompanying editorial in the journal
Nature (7 August 2008). The anti-doping community and scientists familiar with anti-doping work rejected these arguments. On 30 October 2008,
Nature (Vol 455) published a letter to the editor from WADA countering Berry's article. There has been at least one case where the development of statistical decision limit used by WADA in HGH use testing was found invalid by the
Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Chinese doping allegations and subsequent conflict with USADA In 2018, the exterior case containing samples from an anti-doping test, but not the vials themselves, was smashed by the security guards of Chinese swimmer
Sun Yang. In justification, the Doping Control Assistant (DCA) in charge of the testing mission was later criticised by Sun Yang, Chinese media, journalists, and scholars for not following the proper protocols. Sun argued the DCA in question lacked proper identification, a situation that he said had happened previously with the same assistant. FINA's Doping Panel issued Sun with a warning but imposed no penalty. WADA appealed the FINA decision to the
Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The Sunday Times reported on January 27, 2019 that FINA's Doping Panel issued Sun with a warning but imposed no penalty on Sun despite the heavy criticism levelled at the swimmer and his entourage by the International swimming federation's Doping Panel. As a result of that newspaper report, WADA investigated the matter and appealed the FINA decision to the
Court of Arbitration for Sport. Later, in July 2019, News Corp in Australia, part of the same media group as The Sunday Times in London, published in full the report FINA had kept secret. A three-member CAS panel found Sun guilty of refusing to co-operate with sample testers and banned him from competitive swimming until February 2028. However, Sun's lawyers appealed the ruling, which was widely celebrated but also criticised in some quarters. On December 22, 2020, the Swiss Federal Tribunal set the CAS award aside due to the perceived bias of the president of the panel, who before the Sun Yang case came to light had tweeted comments in opposition to videos showing animal cruelty in China that included a racial slur. In addition, another arbitrator, Romano Subiotto, had been sitting on a WADA's working group, though this was no impediment to him serving on a CAS panel. After a second hearing, which unlike the first was not held in public, Sun's suspension was reduced to four years and three months, opening up the possibility of the swimmer being able to participate in the 2024 Olympics, even though it would turn out that his ban would not end until after China's Olympic swimming trials for the Paris Games. On 20 April 2024,
The New York Times and
ARD revealed that 23 members of the Chinese swimming team tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug called
trimetazidine (TMZ) seven months prior to the start of the
2020 Summer Games and were allowed to participate in the games with some of the swimmers winning medals. Following the publication of the report,
Travis Tygart, CEO of the
United States Anti-Doping Agency, accused the WADA and the
China Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) of covering up doping by Chinese swimmers. WADA argued the amount detected was too low to enhance performance, and CHINADA, who had reported the results to WADA and FINA (now World Aquatics), blamed them on contamination from a hotel kitchen, a rationale that potentially exempts findings from being made public. WADA released a statement, explaining that "[it] was not possible for WADA scientists or investigators to conduct their enquiries on the ground in China given the extreme restrictions in place due to a COVID-related lockdown. WADA ultimately concluded that it was not in a position to disprove the possibility that contamination was the source of TMZ and it was compatible with the analytical data in the file."
World Aquatics's investigation agreed with WADA. After the story was leaked, WADA was criticised by the
United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and athletes for not being transparent about the findings and keeping "clean athletes in the dark". WADA's choice of Swiss attorney Eric Cottier to lead an investigation into the matter also drew criticism because he was hand-picked by the agency. Experts interviewed by
The New York Times said trace amounts of TMZ can be detected near the end of a doping excretion period but could not rule out contamination either. WADA was also accused of having a double-standard as Russian figure skater
Kamila Valieva tested positive for TMZ and used the same excuse, but was subsequently banned for four years. WADA argued, based on non-published information and
pharmacokinetics, that contamination would not have been possible in Valieva's case. In the case of the Chinese swimmers, that no international competition was occurring around the time of the positive tests, only athletes who stayed at one of the hotels tested positive, and some individuals alternated between positive and negative results all point to contamination, not doping. In May 2024, WADA announced that it held an extraordinary meeting to discuss the positive test results of the Chinese swimmers. WADA said it asked USADA to produce the whistleblowers alleging doping by the Chinese but has received no response, adding that American athletes had "some of the most elaborate and surprising contamination scenarios" in the past. USADA in response criticised WADA for attacking the messenger and its lack of transparency. The United States has threatened to stop funding WADA and called the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) under the
United States Department of Justice (DOJ) to look into the matter. In June 2024, US Olympic swimmers
Michael Phelps and
Allison Schmitt criticized the WADA in a Congressional hearing. In July, the
International Olympic Committee accepted
Salt Lake City's bid to host the
2034 Winter Olympics under the condition that the contract could be terminated "in cases where the supreme authority of the WADA in the fight against doping is not fully respected or if the application of the world antidoping code is hindered or undermined." The agreement was signed off by the
United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) and Salt Lake City officials but criticized by USADA. In response, U.S. lawmakers proposed a bill to give the
Office of National Drug Control Policy permanent authority to withhold U.S. funding for WADA if it deems WADA's anti-doping actions sub-standard. British swimmer
Adam Peaty, who competed at the
2024 Summer Olympics, also expressed dissatisfaction with the World Anti-Doping Agency's efforts to combat cheating in sports. In September 2024, Swiss prosecutor Eric Cottier, who was picked by WADA to investigate the case of the 23 Chinese swimmers, released his final report noting that some rules were not followed by CHINADA but this did not affect the "acceptance of the contamination hypothesis". The report said WADA did not show favouritism but its administrative processes could be strengthened. The findings largely matched Cottier's June interim report. In November 2024,
Sportschau reported that 18 national anti-doping agencies have sent a joint letter to WADA for answers to why Cottier was appointed to lead an investigation with such a narrow scope, while the chairman of Germany's
Sports Committee in the Bundestag appears to have fabricated a letter of support for WADA.
USADA's doper informant scheme On 28 July 2024,
The Guardian ran a special report on USADA's recruitment of dopers to act as undercover informants to assist with the federal
Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) efforts to catch other dopers. This is permitted if WADA agrees. WADA later said it was not notified and the action breached its rules. Following the report, WADA stated that USADA allowed at least three athletes who had violated anti-doping rules to continue competing for years in exchange for their serving as undercover agents to identify other dopers. The effectiveness of the case was acknowledged by sources from
World Athletics. On 7 August 2024, WADA referred Reuters story exposing a scheme whereby the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) allowed doped athletes to compete for years in direct contravention of the World Anti-Doping Code and USADA's own rules. On August 19, 2024, a former WADA investigator called for WADA to be restructured and that WADA's claims about the informant operation amounted to
defamation, alleging that both WADA's former director-general and number two official were aware of its cooperation with USADA. WADA said the official that USADA was in touch with was a DEA agent who left WADA in 2016 and had no authority to approve such schemes. WADA reiterated that it was not aware of the practice until 2021 and as soon as it learned of the practice, it asked USADA to stop. ==Database leaks==