The World Anti-Doping Agency’s executive board on Thursday eagerly embraced a report that validated its decision to clear 23 elite Chinese swimmers of doping, even as the report’s author pointed out Chinese officials had violated established rules in their handling of the incident.
The final report, written by a Swiss prosecutor, Eric Cottier, who was handpicked by WADA, effectively absolved the global antidoping regulator of wrongdoing in its handling of the Chinese case, which had drawn scorn from Olympic athletes, prompted skepticism from global antidoping experts and sparked a bitter feud with the Biden administration.
The decision to quietly clear the athletes, without ever revealing their positive tests, had hung like a cloud over the pool deck at the Paris Olympics and raised broader concerns over the efficacy of the global antidoping system.