Wada drops lawsuit against Usada and Tygart

The World Anti-Doping Organization filed a lawsuit against the US Anti-Doping Agency in connection with a 2021 controversy involving Chinese swimmers testing positive for a banned substance.

Wada granted permission for the 23 swimmers to compete in the Tokyo Olympics after it discovered it couldn’t refute the China Anti-Doping Agency’s claim that contamination had led to the positive results of the trimetazidine (TMZ) positive tests.

Before filing a defamation lawsuit against Usada and Tygart, Usada’s CEO Travis Tygart accused Wada of a cover-up, which Wada rejected as “completely false and defamatory.”

Wada said it is still “convinced” that the lawsuit would have been successful but that it was “in the interest of moving on.”

Tygart once more criticized Wada and demanded that an independent third party-appointed investigator conduct a “more thorough” audit of the organization.

Since then, there haven’t been any significant differences between the two organizations.

In July, Wada announced that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had the right to revoke Salt Lake City from the 2034 Winter Games if US authorities refused to respect Wada’s “supreme authority.”

Last month, Usada said it “fully” supported the US government’s decision to withhold a payment of $3.6m (£2.8m) to Wada.

Wada claimed that it was “putting this behind us and moving forward in collaboration with our stakeholders for the good of all athletes around the world” by reversing its lawsuit.

However, it added that it was “futile to argue with someone whose only goal is to harm Wada and the world anti-doping system, and who has no desire to find a solution” and that it is “futile to argue with someone who is unwilling to accept clear evidence.”

Tygart remained critical of Wada in response, calling its actions “retaliatory, wasteful and abusive”.

He added: “It’s time for those who value clean sport to step up and get Wada right, as athletes deserve a fair, robust global watchdog to protect their rights to fair competition”.