A World Anti-Doping Agency official has helped with a controversial investigation by the US Anti-Doping Agency into athletes being recruited to provide information about potential dopers, the Guardian understands.
An Observer investigation, which last month revealed how a Kenyan runner became an undercover agent, has reignited a war of words between the agencies, the two most powerful anti-doping organisations in world sport. Wada has accused Usada of violating its code by recruiting athletes who had failed doping tests to provide intelligence.
Wada claims it was notified of the undercover operation in 2021, five years after it began. At that time, the agency made it clear that such operations must be halted.
But the Guardian understands a senior Wada investigator helped the USADA operation, raising fresh questions about what Wada knew and when – and why it chose to criticise the practice during the Paris Olympics, more than three years after the agency says it was first alerted.
Before the Olympics, Usada led international criticism of Wada for failing to address Chinese authorities over 23 positive tests for TMZ and two positive tests for metandienone among its swimming team. The two organizations clashed again over the issue at Paris 2024.
Wada is complaining to Usada that undercover athletes who had doped continued to compete and either received reduced penalties or no penalties at all because they provided “substantial assistance” to hardcore doping.
Sources close to World Athletics, the sports governing body, have said that Usada’s undercover investigation, which saw athletes betray African and American training groups, was crucial in dismantling doping networks and helping to clean up the sport.
However, a Wada spokesperson said: “Wada was not informed of this plan before 2021 and did not sign off on it. Wada has no record that the researcher was aware of this practice at the time.
“Anyway, [the investigator] would not have had the authority to approve this practice [the recruiting of dopers]which was carried out by Usada completely outside the rules. There is no provision in the World Anti-Doping Code … that allows this practice, which is grossly unfair to other athletes. That is why Wada’s legal department, when it discovered what Usada had done in the fall of 2021, immediately ordered Usada in writing to stop it.”
Wada said that in the case highlighted by the Observer, “that athlete’s provisional suspension was lifted shortly after notification, and they continued to compete for years, eventually accepting a sanction in August 2021,” adding: “Despite being required to do so under the rules, Usada failed to notify Wada of its decision to lift the provisional suspension, which is a decision that can be appealed. Had it notified Wada of that decision (and the reasons for it), Wada would have appealed and halted the program immediately.”
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Other anti-doping agencies besides Usada have pointed to the Wada code, which allows for programs similar to those of the American organization. The Wada code states: “Wada may agree to suspensions of the period of ineligibility and other consequences for substantial assistance … or even no period of ineligibility [and] no mandatory disclosure.”
Travis Tygart, CEO of USADA, said last week: “Wada and the International Federation [World Athletics] were aware of the athletes’ cooperation, including the athletes’ return to competition, one of which was necessary for U.S. federal law enforcement [the Drug Enforcement Agency and FBI] investigation into a plan for human and drug trafficking.
“The athletes provided information to federal law enforcement, Usada and the Federation, which led to criminal charges and anti-doping rule violations. Usada worked closely with Wada and the IF [World Athletics] to ensure that those guilty of doping violations and criminal offences are identified and prosecuted as fully as possible.”