Final report clears Wada in Chinese swimmers case, adds rules need strengthening
Swiss prosecutor Eric Cottier says drug chiefs acted ‘autonomously, independently and professionally’, with ‘no evidence to the contrary’
A final report has confirmed that the World Anti-Doping Agency did not show “favouritism” towards China in the case of 23 Chinese swimmers who were cleared to compete after testing positive for a banned drug.
But it also found Wada’s anti-doping rules and administrative processes could be further strengthened, something the agency itself acknowledged.
The report’s author, Swiss prosecutor Eric Cottier, whom the agency appointed to head the investigation into itself, said he found “Wada has done its work autonomously, independently and professionally, and that there is no evidence to the contrary”.
This matched his interim findings announced in early July, but US Anti-Doping Agency chief Travis Tygart, who has been an outspoken critic of the global body’s handling of the affair, said the report “only validates our concerns”.
Cottier also noted that some rules were not followed by the Chinese anti-doping agency (Chinada), but added “it does not change the outcome of the cases and the acceptance of the contamination hypothesis”.
In April, The New York Times and German broadcaster ARD reported that the swimmers had tested positive for the banned heart medication trimetazidine (TMZ) at a domestic competition in late 2020 and early 2021.
