The fallout from the disclosure that the World Anti-Doping Agency did not discipline a slew of Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned drug erupted Wednesday after the Biden administration said it withheld major funding for the agency and the agency removed the U.S. government’s representative from its board.
The United States had held back its funding to the agency, known as WADA, after losing faith in its ability to guard against the use of banned performance-enhancing drugs at events like the Olympics, the White House said.
The decision by the Biden administration was a significant blow to WADA, which has been under intense scrutiny for decisions not to punish or more aggressively investigate positive tests for banned substances by elite Chinese swimmers in recent years.
On Wednesday, the anti-doping agency responded by removing the United States, which had been the single largest country funder to the agency, from a position on its board.
WADA said in a statement that in line with its rules, “representatives from a country which has not paid its dues are ineligible to sit on the foundation board or the executive committee.”
The White House chose to withhold the funding it had committed to providing WADA in 2024 in consultation with Congress.
“WADA must take concrete actions to restore trust in the world anti-doping system and provide athletes the full confidence they deserve,” the White House said in a statement released late Tuesday.
The United States had been slated to contribute $3.6 million for 2024, a tiny amount of the federal budget but a significant part of WADA’s funding. The American contribution is matched by the International Olympic Committee and would ultimately make up 14% of the organization’s roughly $52 million budget for 2024.
The question of whether the U.S. will provide funding for this year will fall to the second Trump administration, which took an adversarial approach to WADA during President Donald Trump’s first term.
The United States is set to host two Olympics in the next decade. White House officials fear that the 2034 Winter Olympics, which were awarded to Salt Lake City in July, could be taken away as a punishment of the United States over both its refusal to pay and ongoing efforts by the Justice Department and Congress to investigate how the positive tests were handled.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
