Top swimmers in China have been in the news recently due to numerous doping accusations and controversial US assertions that Wada was hiding it.
Drug tests were administered to Chinese swimmers traveling to Paris twice as frequently as swimmers from certain other countries, which has stoked rumors of a plot to sabotage their performance.
Putting itself “in the middle of geopolitical tensions between superpowers but has no mandate to participate in that,” Wada stated in a statement on Tuesday.
Because the athletes in question are Chinese, some people [in the US] are trying to gain political points, Wada head of media relations James Fitzgerald told the news. “The result is that it has created distrust and division within the anti-doping system.”
Tight geopolitical relations, a trade conflict, and Beijing’s close ties to Russia have damaged ties between the two biggest economies in the world.
While it should come as no surprise that some of these tensions manifest themselves in competitive sports, they now seem to be driving a harsher and harder wedge.
Wada announced last week that it was thinking about taking US rival Usada to court over “defamatory” claims.
