WADA President Declines Invitation to Testify at Congressional Hearing on Anti-Doping

By Riley Overend on SwimSwam

World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) president Witold Banka has declined an invitation to testify at Tuesday’s Congressional subcommittee hearing on the anti-doping system.

According to a spokesperson for the House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Banka did not provide a reason for turning down the invite. The hearing, titled “Examining Anti-Doping Measures in Advance of the 2024 Olympics,” will feature testimonies from 23-time Olympic champion Michael Phelps, 10-time Olympic medalist Allison Schmitt, and U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart.

Banka was also invited to a hearing before the Sports Committee of the German Bundestag in late May, but he declined due to prior commitments.

Last month, Katie Ledecky said her faith in the Olympic anti-doping system was at an “all-time low” following reports in April that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine (TMZ) seven months before the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. They were never provisionally banned, and three (Zhang Yufei, Wang Shun, and Yang Junxuan) went on to win Olympic gold medals in Tokyo after their positive tests were chalked up to contamination from their hotel kitchen.

Related: Three Chinese Swimmers Reportedly Tested Positive Before 2021 Incident, Also Went Unpunished

“(Allegations of) mass doping of Chinese swimmers and a deliberate cover-up by WADA are entirely false,” Banka reportedly wrote to the German Bundestag last month. “The analytical results in these cases were simply not compatible with doping.”

A separate House committee on China called last month for the Department of Justice to investigate WADA’s handling of the 2021 Chinese doping controversy. In April, WADA appointed a Swiss prosecutor to review the case after catching criticism from the White House, USADA, and international swimming federations. Findings are expected to be released right before the Paris Olympics next month. Among the main questions is why the Chinese swimmers were not provisionally suspended after testing positive for TMZ.

The U.S. is a major contributor to WADA, funding almost $3 million of the organization’s $43.4 million budget in 2021. Half of WADA’s funding came from the International Olympic Committee.

The hearing will be streamed here at 7 p.m. EST on Tuesday.

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