National anti-doping regulators like China are expected to closely monitor athletes in competition and training for evidence of illegal drug taking, while WADA – which is funded by the Olympic Movement and national governments – oversees anti-doping worldwide. Coordinates the rules.
“The Chinese are not being held to the same standards by their own national anti-doping agency and then by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which is supposed to be a great equalizer and ensure that the rules are applied fairly around the world , Well the Chinese didn’t follow the rules and effectively swept it under the carpet,” Tygart said.
Chinada did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement, a WADA spokesperson said: “Allegations of pro-China bias and cover-up on WADA’s part have no evidence from the outset and WADA’s clarification shows they are completely false. Only a few individuals, with their own agenda, stick to those defamatory claims.
The prospect of China’s blatant cheating through the Paris Olympics is another sensitive topic for Macron and Xi this week, as the leaders grapple with Beijing’s support for Russia’s war on ukraine and a Trade war looms between Europe and China, Macron has made the Olympics a key pillar of his second presidential term.
Russian state-sponsored fraud has marred previous Olympics, notably in Sochi in 2014 where Moscow orchestrated a brazen – and initially successful – doping conspiracy, but Tygart said the Chinese scandal could be worse. Because it exposes the failure of sports administration.
“So along the lines of Russia – and look, I don’t know if the evidence of systemic state-sponsored doping is at the level that’s been shown in the Russia case – but here I think it’s more troubling to clean athletes. , because the system that holds every country accountable has collapsed,” Tygart said.
Ironically, a teenage Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva tested positive for the same TMZ substance in 2021 and was stripped of her medals and banned for four years,