Chinese anti-doping authority issues statement on independent prosecutor final report

BEIJING, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) on Friday slammed certain organizations and media outlets sticking to their "false claims" in the Chinese swimmers' contamination case, and called for target testing on American swimmers as their flushed faces during the Paris Olympics arouse speculations.

CHINADA released a statement after Independent Prosecutor Eric Cottier presented the final report on the no-fault contamination cases involving 23 Chinese swimmers to World Anti-Doping Agency's executive committee meeting.

"The Independent Prosecutor's final report once again shows the reasonableness of CHINADA's investigation into and decision on the cases, and proves there is no such thing as a 'cover-up' in the cases as deliberately fabricated and unfoundedly accused by certain organizations and media outlets like the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), the New York Times and the German broadcaster ARD," read the statement. "Meanwhile, the full report also demonstrates that the existing anti-doping system is open, transparent and trustworthy to the athletes worldwide."

The final report reaffirmed WADA's decision not to appeal cases was reasonable; WADA showed no favoritism or in any way benefited the 23 swimmers; there is no evidence of any intervention or interference with WADA's review as described above, whether internal to the Agency, or external to it, from any entity or institution, including CHINADA or the Chinese authorities.

"The report also points out that, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, CHINADA had carried out investigation to the best of its ability, and had been collaborative, open and transparent in its active communication with both WADA and FINA (now known as the World Aquatics)," said CHINADA.

CHINADA then criticized USADA for its politicalization of the issue and the use of the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act overstepping the boundaries of jurisdiction.

"In disregard of the basic factual findings by the Independent Prosecutor in his report, USADA instigated the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to initiate a 'long-arm jurisdiction' over this case by opening an investigation through the 'jurisdiction' granted by the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act," said CHINADA. "Such a 'double standard' behavior of attempting to overstep the boundaries of jurisdiction over other countries while turning a blind eye to its long history of doping problems has aroused widespread concern in the international community."

CHINADA went on to call for target testing on American swimmers due to the "purple faces" controversy during the Paris Olympics.

"We have also noticed the 'purple faces' of the American swimmers during the Paris Olympic Games that no athletes from other countries had," it said. "There have been various speculations and doubts about the 'purple faces' from media worldwide, such as the use of some prohibited substances that are difficult to detect at present (ITPP for example), which we found not unreasonable."

"We therefore strongly call on relevant ADOs to follow up these American swimmers for target testing. To clear up the public doubts, we also call for long-term storage of the samples collected during Paris 2024, more research on targeted detection methods, and further analysis of these athletes' samples or reanalysis of the samples when new detection methods are available."