United States is at risk of losing both the 2028 Summer and 2034 Winter Olympics if American law enforcement over reaches in its investigation of Chinese swimmers, said former senior International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Dick Pound.
Any country wanting to compete in or stage an international sporting event must be compliant with the anti-doping code.
Pound, the Canadian lawyer who led the set up of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), believes the Rodchenkov Act the U.S. is using to investigate the positive tests of 23 Chinese swimmers could disqualify it as an Olympic host.
The Rodchenkov Act legislation passed in 2020 extends U.S. law enforcement jurisdiction to any international sporting competitions that involve American athletes or have financial connections to the United States.
“That legislation is non-compliant with the anti-doping code,” Pound told Reuters on Tuesday. “My guess is that one of the steps that WADA is going to take at this point is to turn this particular issue over to the compliance review committee.
“Which I suspect, if or when there’s a hearing on it, they will declare the United States non-compliant. It would mean they could not host the Olympics.”
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WADA had no comment when asked about taking the U.S. to the non-compliant review committee but other anti-doping officials who did not want to be named confirmed the idea is being discussed.
WADA believes the Rodchenkov Act is national legislation not in harmony with the anti-doing code that allows U.S. authorities to relitigate cases already decided.
With contracts signed and advance plans in place, stripping Los Angeles of the 2028 Olympics is unlikely.
Yet Pound told Reuters that the IOC might consider delaying the confirmation of Salt Lake City as host of the 2034 Winter Olympics.
Salt Lake is expected to be rubber stamped as 2034 hosts during the IOC Congress next week ahead of the Paris Games but Pound said Olympic chiefs could use the opportunity to send a message by delaying the confirmation.
“There’s certainly an opportunity, because apparently we have a session in Puerto Rico in November,” said Pound. “An easy way to finesse that would be to say, well listen these would be Games in the Americas maybe that’s the place we should make our announcement in Puerto Rico.
“If I were King of the mountain, I would call up (United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee chair) Gene Sykes and say, listen the drums are starting to beat here and it’s this legislation that puts the U.S. offside.”
Such a move would further inflame tensions between WADA and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) which has accused the global body of a cover-up and called on the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate how the Chinese swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine (TMZ) weeks before the Tokyo Olympics.
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The swimmers were cleared by a Chinese investigation which said they were inadvertently exposed to the drug through contamination and allowed to compete at the Tokyo Games.
Two independent investigations one by Swiss prosecutor Eric Cottier looking into WADA’s handling of the case and the other an audit by World Aquatics reached similar conclusions that there was no mismanagement or cover-up.
Other than voicing its support for WADA, the IOC has not so far waded into the threat of a U.S. investigation but the powerful Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) made its position clear, saying on Friday it had growing concerns about sending officials to the United States over fears they could be arrested.
“When you look at the context, this was a national competition, a domestic China competition, there wasn’t an American within 6,000 miles,” said Pound. “Now all of a sudden they’re trying to upgrade this to a Rodchenkov violation, which is just bad.
“You’ve already seen that shot across the bow from ASOIF, saying, hey listen this is serious and the U.S. may be disqualified from participation in a lot of these events.
“I think there’s a danger of USADA and the U.S. playing itself offside in a way that could jeopardize both the 2028 and 2034 Games.”
