The Paris Olympics are a month away and while much of the focus is on sewage in the River Seine, Congress is talking about doping. The House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing on what members contend are failures of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
To shine a light on the conversation, lawmakers brought Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps.
“I witnessed firsthand the pervasive uncertainty and the suspicions surrounding doping,” the 23-time gold medalist said. “The hardest part was seeing athletes achieve seemingly impossible feats, knowing the immense effort and sacrifices required to reach these heights cleanly.”
Members on both sides of the aisle accused WADA of unevenly applying its rules to athletes from different countries.
Lawmakers pointed to an incident involving swimmers from China at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Before the Games, 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for a banned substance but 13 of them ultimately competed in the Olympics.
According to Chinese officials, the athletes tested positive “after inadvertently being exposed to the substance through food/environment contamination as a result of TMZ detected in the kitchen” of their hotel.
WADA accepted the explanation from officials, and 11 of those athletes are scheduled to compete again in Paris.
“How many more Olympic athletes have to lose out on winning medals and proudly singing their country’s national anthem before the World Anti-Doping Agency decides to enforce these rules uniformly,” Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said.
WADA was invited to testify but did not show.
“It’s really outrageous that WADA does not have the courage or integrity to show up and defend itself here tonight. WADA should be protecting clean sport and not hiding from accountability,” Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said.
“Some of [the swimmers] were tested on two or even three occasions on consecutive days,” WADA stated in a six-page document. “For several swimmers, the results varied from negative to positive within a few hours, which is not compatible with a doping scenario of deliberate ingestion nor with micro-dosing.”
The CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency cast doubt on that explanation.
“TMZ is a controlled prescription medication, it’s prohibited all the time,” U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart said. “The default sanction is four years. It doesn’t magically appear, fairy dust in a kitchen.”
Tygart suggested assigning an independent prosecutor who can look at the evidence and athlete’s individual files.
As for Phelps, the athlete who dedicated his life to reaching greatness, he wants rule breakers banned.
“If somebody does test positive, I would like to see a lifetime ban,” Phelps said. “If somebody is going out of their way to single handedly cheat, go, lifetime ban.”
