China Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) noted that the serious wrongdoing by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) in covering up anti-doping rule violations of some athletes it has caught and letting them keep on competing has been revealed by the media. In a subsequent statement, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) pointed out that since 2011, there have been at least three cases where athletes who had taken steroids and erythropoietins (EPO) were not charged and sanctioned by USADA and were allowed to continue to compete for years until their retirement while they acted as the so-called undercover agents for USADA. This practice has long been covered up by USADA, who hadn’t informed WADA until 2021 when WADA immediately instructed it to desist.

Such practice of USADA constitutes a serious violation of the World Anti-Doping Code (the Code) and its own rules, causes severe damage to the rights and interests of clean athletes and to the fair play principle in sport, and shows a profound lack of transparency in USADA’s anti-doping work. The fact that the U.S. has turned a blind eye to its long history of doping problems while trying to cross the border and exercise jurisdiction over other countries has just clearly exposed to the international community its trick of a thief crying “stop the thief” and the double standards behind its logic. When responding to media concerns, the CEO of USADA said blatantly that their practice is an effective way to get at these bigger, systemic problems. However, the scheme is, in effect, a cover-up of anti-doping rule violations under the guise of undercover informants. This statement reveals the arrogance of the USADA CEO and his contempt for international rules. Moreover, it has further added evidence to the larger-scale, organized, and systemic doping problem in U.S. sports. 

We strongly call on the U.S. Congress and the USADA Board of Directors to face up to the grave problem of doping in the U.S. itself and the serious governance flaw in USADA. What they should do is to tighten supervision and regulation on USADA, strengthen anti-doping measures in their own country, and stop their despicable attempts of “long-arm jurisdiction” and gross meddling in the work of anti-doping organizations in other countries. 

We also strongly call for an independent investigation into USADA for seriously violating the Code by covering up anti-doping rule violations. USADA should immediately disclose the details in relevant cases and respond to the concerns about its own problems from the media and the general public, and truly implement the principle of transparency to which it has repeatedly claimed to have adhered in its statements.

Annex：WADA statement on Reuters story exposing USADA scheme in contravention of World Anti-Doping Code

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) responds to a Reuters story of 7 August 2024 exposing a scheme whereby the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) allowed athletes who had doped, to compete for years, in at least one case without ever publishing or sanctioning their anti-doping rule violations, in direct contravention of the World Anti-Doping Code and USADA’s own rules. 

This USADA scheme threatened the integrity of sporting competition, which the Code seeks to protect. By operating it, USADA was in clear breach of the rules. Contrary to the claims made by USADA, WADA did not sign off on this practice of permitting drug cheats to compete for years on the promise that they would try to obtain incriminating evidence against others. 

Within the Code there is a provision whereby an athlete who provides substantial assistance can subsequently apply to have a proportion of their period of ineligibility suspended. However, there is a clear process for that, which does not involve allowing those who have cheated to continue to compete while they may or may not gather incriminating evidence against others and while they could retain a performance-enhancement effect from the substances they took. When WADA eventually found out about this non-compliant practice in 2021, many years after it had started, it immediately instructed USADA to desist. 

WADA is now aware of at least three cases where athletes who had committed serious anti-doping rule violations were allowed to continue to compete for years while they acted as undercover agents for USADA, without it notifying WADA and without there being any provision allowing such a practice under the Code or USADA’s own rules. 

In one case, an elite level athlete, who competed at Olympic qualifier and international events in the United States, admitted to taking steroids and EPO yet was permitted to continue competing all the way up to retirement. Their case was never published, results never disqualified, prize money never returned, and no suspension ever served. The athlete was allowed to line up against their unknowing competitors as if they had never cheated. In that case, when USADA eventually admitted to WADA what had been going on, it advised that any publication of consequences or disqualification of results would put the athlete’s security at risk and asked WADA to agree to non-publication. Being put in this impossible position, WADA had no choice but to agree (after verifying with its Intelligence and Investigations Department that the security threat was credible). The athlete’s doping was therefore never made public. 

In another case of a high-level athlete, USADA never notified WADA of its decision to lift an athlete’s provisional suspension, which is an appealable decision, despite being required to do so under the Code. Had WADA been notified, it would never have allowed this. 

How must other athletes feel knowing they were competing in good faith against those who were known by USADA to have cheated? It is ironic and hypocritical that USADA cries foul when it suspects other Anti-Doping Organizations are not following the rules to the letter while it did not announce doping cases for years and allowed cheats to carry on competing, on the off chance they might help them catch other possible violators. WADA wonders if the USADA Board of Directors, which governs USADA, or U.S. Congress, which funds it, knew about this non-compliant practice that not only undermined the integrity of sporting competition but also put the co-operating athletes’ security at risk.