The United States Anti-Doping Agency has welcomed the decision of their country's government to withhold a payment of 3.6million US dollars (€3.49m) to the World Anti-Doping Agency.
The news comes after it emerged last year that 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine prior to the Tokyo Olympics were cleared to compete on the basis of a finding by their national anti-doping agency that they had unknowingly ingested the drug via contaminated food.
A statement on Wednesday from USADA chief executive Travis Tygart said: "Today, it was announced that the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) has withheld its 2024 dues payment of USD 3.6m from the World Anti-Doping Agency.
"USADA fully supports this decision by the White House ONDCP as the only right choice to protect athletes’ rights, accountability, and fair competition.
"Unfortunately, the current WADA leaders left the US with no other option after failing to deliver on several very reasonable requests, such as an independent audit of WADA’s operations, to achieve the transparency and accountability needed to ensure WADA is fit for purpose to protect athletes.
"Since the exposure of WADA’s failed handling of the 23 Chinese swimmers’ positive tests that gave China and its athletes special treatment under the rules, many stakeholders from around the world, including athletes, governments, and National Anti-Doping Agencies, have sought answers, transparency, and accountability from WADA leadership.
"Because WADA failed to uniformly enforce the global rules in place to protect the integrity of competition and athletes’ rights to fairness, significant reform at WADA must occur to ensure this never happens again."
WADA said in a statement: "The World Anti-Doping Agency confirms that it did not receive the agreed contribution to WADA’s 2024 budget from the government of the United States by the deadline of December 31, 2024.
"Under article 6.6 of the WADA statutes, public authority representatives from a country which has not paid its dues are ineligible to sit on the foundation board or the executive committee.
"Therefore, on January 1 of each year, any foundation board or executive committee member representing a country that has not paid its annual contribution for the previous year automatically loses their seat.
"The outstanding amount owed to WADA by the US government is USD 3.625m. For context, WADA’s overall budget for 2025 has been approved at USD 57.5m."
