At the start of the Tokyo Games, relations between the United States and WADA remain tenuous

The President of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Witold Bańka maintains his willingness to work with the United States, despite the U.S. withholding funding from the organization this week over concerns with WADA’s governance system.

“We are always keen to work with [the United States] on anti-doping systems, I had very constructive meetings with Office of National Drug Control Policy representatives and we continue to work with them,” Bańka said at a press conference in Tokyo on Friday, noting that WADA was awaiting recommendations from its special working group on governance reform before moving forward with any U.S. requests for changes.

However, Bańka also rebuked the United States for its domestic sports’ lack of adherence to WADA protocols, stating “we need to stress the issue that almost 90% of athletes from the U.S., especially in the major leagues and academic sport, are not competing under the World Anti-Doping Code... They should think about how to strengthen their anti-doping system”.

Bańka’s comments follow an announcement at a Wednesday U.S. Senate hearing by Richard Baum, the anti-doping coordinator at the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), that it would withhold $1.3 million of the $2.9 million in annual funding for WADA until U.S. demands for governance reform are adopted. Chief among these are the removal of members of the IOC and other sports entities from the WADA Executive Committee in a bid to make the organization more independent, and elevating the decision-making role of athletes.

“We need to see a transformation of the WADA Executive Committee”, Baum said at the hearing. “It needs to be changed into a fully independent expert body. Its work is too important to be subject to even the appearance of conflicts of interest. The U.S. has been pursuing this reform proactively in cooperation with other governments. If the IOC blocks this systemic reform, the US will pursue other alternatives to increase independence within the WADA Executive Committee more gradually.”

“We view this partial dues payment as a sign of good faith, while indicating our commitment to ensure ongoing governance reform at WADA. We hope to see sufficient progress to make the remainder of the dues payment this year.”

This year marks the first time the United States has withheld funding from WADA, though not the first time the U.S. has clashed with the anti-doping agency. Last December the U.S. put WADA on notice by passing a law, the Rodchenkov Act, that allows the U.S. government to unilaterally prosecute foreign doping offenders in international competitions. WADA has criticized the Act due to its potential to create overlapping doping laws across jurisdictions and complicate international doping prevention efforts.

At the same Friday press conference, WADA Director General Oliver Niggli addressed another issue relevant to U.S. interests of late – the status of marijuana as a banned drug. As Around the Rings reported earlier this month, the White House’s ONDCP has stated that it is considering pushing for marijuana’s removal from WADA’s list of prohibited substances, following the Olympic suspension of gold-medal contender sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson for a positive test.

Niggli reiterated that while WADA had greenlit some U.S.-backed marijuana reforms in the past – specifically a ten-fold increase in the threshold for a positive marijuana test approved in 2013 – the United States has historically opposed the drug being allowed outright in competition, and taking steps toward that goal would regardless involve significant worldwide input.

“This has been a debate for many years, the views on this question are very diverse across the globe. The increase of the threshold was taken at some point when there was a will to try to ensure that only those who had consumed marijuana very close to events would be caught, and that resulted in a threshold where only high levels of marijuana are reported by the lab. That was supported by the US at the time who did not want marijuana taken off the list”, Niggli explained.

“We are always open to adjusting the rules and reviewing the standards, but I agree with President Biden who said that ‘rules are rules’”, Bańka also mentioned, referring a comment that U.S. President Joe Biden had made accepting Richardson’s suspension.

Both the topics of governance reform and marijuana policy are set to be discussed at WADA’s Foundation Board meeting in November.

Homepage photo: WADA

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