What is WADA, why is the FBI investigating it and why is it feuding with US anti-doping officials?
Source: Associated Press
What is WADA, why is the FBI investigating it and why is it feuding with US anti-doping officials?
By GRAHAM DUNBAR
Updated 2:29 PM EDT, July 25, 2024
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:
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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.
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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/olympics-2024-paris-doping-wada-rodchenkov-7064e60d0ad23a9df92dbd94d6c89593