Political interference 'frustrating' for WADA

Just over a year after an internal investigation cleared the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) of pro-China bias, senior officials at the organisation decried a "frustrating" increase in political interference.

"When I started, about 20% of my work was politics," Gunter Younger, director of Intelligence and Investigations at WADA, told AFP.

Now, he claims 80% of his work has become political.

"It's quite frustrating," he adds.

"We spend so much time on politics instead of doing what we are supposed to do."

However, Younger warned: "We are not afraid of any country in the world."

His remarks come just over a year after the agency was rocked by a scandal involving 23 Chinese swimmers, who were cleared of doping after testing positive for the same banned heart drug in 2021.

Chinese investigators cleared the swimmers -- some of whom went on to win Olympic gold in Tokyo that year -- of wrongdoing, claiming the athletes had been exposed to the drug via a contaminated hotel kitchen.

WADA opted not to independently investigate the matter, sparking controversy, especially with the United States and its own anti-doping organisation, USADA.

Following WADA's decision, the United States government withdrew $3.6 million in funding, resulting in the removal of US representatives from its executive committee.

USADA CEO and arch WADA critic Travis Tygart defended the decision, arguing last May "the agency charged with keeping sports doping-free now seems vulnerable to manipulation by malign states."

The decision also drew criticism from several Olympic athletes, as well as scepticism from some antidoping experts.

But WADA defended its decision, citing a 2024 investigation by Swiss prosecutor Eric Cottier, which absolved the organisation of wrongdoing, despite finding Chinese officials had violated established rules in the way they handled the case.

The organisation claims that geopolitical motivations are at fault for the fallout.

WADA's president, Witold Banka, told AFP the incident was "used as a war between two powers (China and the USA)."

"We were in the middle of it all," said the 41-year-old Pole, who has been president since 2019.

The Chinese case brought to light a growing issue in the anti-doping field regarding contamination, or cases where the athletes themselves are not at fault for what is found in their system.

However, as doping becomes more sophisticated, officials argue that determining whether something truly can be considered contamination can also become more difficult.

Following the Chinese case, WADA set up earlier this year a new working group on contamination.