{"id":35347,"date":"2024-04-25T17:21:55","date_gmt":"2024-04-25T17:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/25\/wada-appoints-special-prosecutor-in-chinese-doping-case\/"},"modified":"2024-04-25T17:21:55","modified_gmt":"2024-04-25T17:21:55","slug":"wada-appoints-special-prosecutor-in-chinese-doping-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/25\/wada-appoints-special-prosecutor-in-chinese-doping-case\/","title":{"rendered":"WADA Appoints Special Prosecutor in Chinese Doping Case"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/25\/multimedia\/25china-doping-vhkf\/25china-doping-vhkf-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"WADA Appoints Special Prosecutor in Chinese Doping Case\" title=\"WADA Appoints Special Prosecutor in Chinese Doping Case\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The World Anti-Doping Agency on Thursday appointed a special prosecutor to review how 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned drug were allowed to avoid public scrutiny and compete at the 2021 Olympics, where they won gold medals and set records.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The decision to appoint the special prosecutor, Eric Cottier of Switzerland, came amid an outcry from top government officials, antidoping experts and authorities, and athletes over the way Chinese antidoping officials and the global regulator, known as WADA, handled the positives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">WADA cast the move as one it had to make in response to \u201cthe damaging and baseless allegations that are being leveled\u201d against the agency since The New York Times on Saturday <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/20\/world\/asia\/chinese-swimmers-doping-olympics.html\" title=\"\">revealed<\/a> how the Chinese antidoping agency, known as Chinada, and WADA declined to discipline or identify the 23 swimmers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWADA\u2019s integrity and reputation is under attack,\u201d the WADA president, Witold Banka, said in a statement. \u201cIn the past few days, WADA has been unfairly accused of bias in favor of China by not appealing the Chinada case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. We continue to reject the false accusations and we are pleased to be able to put these questions into the hands of an experienced, respected and independent prosecutor.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As part of the review, WADA said on Thursday, Mr. Cottier \u2014 who was the attorney general of a canton in Switzerland for 17 years before he stepped down in 2022 \u2014 will be given \u201cfull and unfettered access to all of WADA\u2019s files and documents related to this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Among the questions WADA has tasked Mr. Cottier with answering is whether the decision by Chinada to clear the athletes of doping, and WADA\u2019s decision not to intervene, was \u201ca reasonable one.\u201d WADA also asked the prosecutor to examine if China received preferential treatment from WADA.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The announcement came three days after Mr. Banka and other top WADA officials <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/22\/world\/asia\/doping-china-swimmers-olympics.html\" title=\"\">defended the organization\u2019s handling<\/a> of the China case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIf we had to do it over again now,\u201d Mr. Banka declared on Monday, \u201cwe would do exactly the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That same day, the Biden administration\u2019s top drug official, who is also a member of WADA\u2019s executive board, called for an independent investigator and said that he planned to raise the issue at a meeting of sports ministers and antidoping officials in Washington on Thursday and Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe United States stands by its commitment to ensure that every American athlete and those across the globe are provided a level playing field and a fair shot in international athletic competitions,\u201d the official, Rahul Gupta, who is the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said on Monday. \u201cThere must be rigorous, independent investigations to look into any incident of potential wrongdoing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Within minutes of WADA\u2019s announcement of a special prosecutor, Travis T. Tygart, the head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, who has been among the biggest critics of the regulator\u2019s handling of the Chinese case, criticized its motives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt\u2019s hard to view this as anything other than a whitewash given the ongoing threats and attacks,\u201d Mr. Tygart said in a statement to The Times. \u201cClearly it\u2019s precooked. WADA\u2019s statement exemplifies the problem with the current system. WADA does not follow its own rules, and then it gets to handpick an attorney from its own backyard and also sets the scope of that handpicked attorney\u2019s review.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Concern about the positive tests has only grown since details of the cases were made public on Saturday. Antidoping authorities in Britain and Australia had already called for an independent review, echoing demands from national swimming governing bodies, athletes and government officials around the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cAquatics GB believes that every athlete is entitled to compete on a level playing field \u2014 and that means a commitment to clean sport,\u201d British swimming\u2019s governing body said in a statement. \u201cDelivery against this commitment requires a testing process that is robust, transparent and consistently applied.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">WADA had tried to tame some of the fallout of the China revelations on Monday by hosting a news conference. That effort, which lasted nearly two hours, failed to quiet the outrage, however.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And in acknowledging that it had not followed its own procedures in the case, WADA raised more questions about whether the Chinese were treated differently from athletes in other nations facing similar accusations. The United States Anti-Doping Agency even produced a detailed rebuttal to claims made in the news conference, an emphatic sign that the case \u2014 and WADA\u2019s handling of it \u2014 would not be allowed to disappear quietly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/25\/world\/asia\/wada-china-special-prosecutor-swimming.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The World Anti-Doping Agency on Thursday appointed a special prosecutor to review how 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned drug were allowed to avoid public scrutiny and compete at the 2021 Olympics, where they won gold medals and set records. The decision to appoint the special prosecutor, Eric Cottier of Switzerland, came [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/25\/multimedia\/25china-doping-vhkf\/25china-doping-vhkf-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7580,1287,3394,23371,16722,6303,38606],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35347"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35347"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35349,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35347\/revisions\/35349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}