United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart continued to question the legitimacy of the ruling that Chinese swimmers tested positive for Trimetazidine (TMZ) due to contamination while speaking at a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing on Tuesday.
Tygart told senators that the Chinese swimmers would have had to eat around 11 pounds of food to test for the amounts of TMZ they did in early 2021 while on a training camp prior to the Tokyo Olympics. Chinese authorities ruled that the swimmers had been contaminated by food made in their hotel kitchen, and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accepted that explanation.
“It’s unbelievable to think that Tinkerbell just showed up and sprinkled it all over the kitchen,” Tygart said in the Senate hearing, according to The Associated Press.
USADA scientists reportedly analyzed data from a report commissioned by WADA to come up with the amount of food (11 lbs/5 kilograms) or liquid (4.9 liters) the athletes would have had to consume to test positive at the levels they did.
Tygart has been at the forefront of an ongoing saga between USADA and WADA, which led to the U.S. White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) withholding its annual $3.6 million payment to WADA.
Rahul Gupta, the Director of the ONDCP who ultimately made the decision to withhold the funding to WADA, also testified in the hearing.
Gupta compared WADA’s governance issues with those of a used car.
“You expect that the car has been thoroughly inspected, that it’s safe and roadworthy,” he said, according to The Associated Press. “But as soon as you drive it off the lot, the brakes fail and the engine sputters — and only then do you learn that the dealership has a history of skipping inspections altogether.”
WADA declined to participate in the hearing, with spokesperson James Fitzergald calling it “another political effort led by Travis Tygart … to leverage the Senate and the media in a desperate effort to relitigate the Chinese swimming cases and misinform athletes and other stakeholders,” according to The Associated Press.
Tygart and Gupta recommended a number of reforms to WADA, most of them based around ensuring independence, which they say cannot be accomplished under the current model, which requires the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to fund half of WADA’s money.
American swimmer Katie McLaughlin, who was a member of the U.S. women’s 4×200 free relay that won silver at the Tokyo Olympics behind the Chinese team that ended up having two of the swimmers who tested positive on it (Yang Junxuan, Zhang Yufei), also testified at the hearing on Tuesday.
“It broke my heart and my teammates’ hearts because, Madam Chairwoman, clean athletes carry the weight of sacrifice and discipline and transparency, and when that’s not honored, it undermines the whole point of what we’re fighting for,” McLaughlin said about the swimmers who had tested positive, according to The Daily Signal.
“What’s particularly disheartening as well is to learn that the powers that be, WADA, is supposed to be the one holding everyone to the same standard, is not holding everyone accountable.”
McLaughlin swam the third leg on the relay in Tokyo, combining with Allison Schmitt, Paige Madden and Katie Ledecky to earn silver in an American Record time of 7:40.73, which was also under the world record coming into the meet, while the Chinese team won gold and broke the world record in 7:40.33.
Schmitt has previously testified at a Congressional hearing.
Tygart added that potentially as many as 96 medals at the 2021 and 2024 Olympics were affected by the Chinese doping case.
“These 96 medals were potentially impacted by China, sweeping dozens of positive tests on their elite-level swimmers under the rug, while the global regulator, the World Anti-Doping Agency—otherwise known as WADA—did nothing about it,” Tygart said, according to The Daily Signal.
“Let me be very clear: We need a strong WADA. We support the mission, but we need a WADA that is truly independent, a global regulator, not a lapdog to interests other than anything besides clean athletes and parents and sport.”
You can find full coverage of last year’s doping scandal here.
America should look at what’s happening in their country.
Im glad they’re not just letting this fade into obscurity, because I know there were some people who wanted the conversation to just die. This needs to continue being talked about until these clean women get what they deserve.
Tygart didn’t just let it go with Lance Armstrong. If there is anyone I have faith in its him.
Where was he at in the beginning when everyone knew what was going on. He’s no different than Bud Selig
Just let it go. Starting to sound like RG
Really? They deserve that Gold and WR. China doesn’t.
Not the hill you wanna die on, these women deserve that gold
I would not put this within the same footing:
Lia followed the rules set out by the NCAA to complete. One may not agree with the rules, but she did follow them.
This case is around someone breaking a set of rules.
I think that there is a difference, but I am sure there are some people that do not.
Doping should not exist. However, let’s not be so deep into investigating dopers that we catch some of our own!! You can’t blame one country for doping……Lots of doping all around……suspicious times and world records at suspicious ages…..investigators please investigate…just not hard enough to catch some of our glorious USA swimmers 🦅🦅🦅🦅
Tygert might be many things, but stupid he ain’t. He knows the Chinese were and are dirty.