Topics: Donald Trump, Olympics
WADA (The World Anti-Doping Agency) has responded to suggestions that Donald Trump and other US government officials could be banned from the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
LA will play host to the Olympics for the third time in the city's history, with around 15 million visitors expected to attend 844 ticketed events across 50 venues.
A new of sports have been confirmed to return, including softball and baseball, cricket and lacrosse, while flag football, a variant of American football, and squash will debut after being added by the IOC (International Olympic Committee) for the first time.
However, uncertainty emerged about the Games after a report from the Associated Press said that the government body were considering changing rules which could ban President Trump and those involved in his government from attending.
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WADA are the global regulator for anti-doping in sport, having been set up back in 1999. Their task is to stop the use of banned performance-enhancing drugs in all of sport, including the Olympics.
On Tuesday, the agency's executive committee are slated to meet and AP reported that part of the agenda would be around the US government's refusal to pay yearly dues and that there is a proposal to punish in the form of a ban from major sporting events - potentially even applying to the World Cup.
However, the governing body proceeded to issue a statement where they denied that such a ban would be possible as they branded the AP article "entirely misleading".
On the WADA website, the statement on Friday read: "The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) notes today’s Associated Press (AP) article alleging that WADA might ban United States government officials from the LA 2028 Summer Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup over unpaid dues.
Despite WADA having provided AP with the facts, the article is entirely misleading. In fact, prior to the publication of the article, WADA specifically responded to the AP journalist – Eddie Pells – that, even if proposals that were being discussed amongst stakeholders were introduced, 'given that the rules would not apply retroactively, the FIFA World Cup, LA and Salt Lake City Games would not be covered".
"Mr. Pells chose to omit this one statement from his article, presumably because it undermined his story.
"In fact, discussions related to the issue of governments unilaterally withholding funding from WADA have been ongoing since early 2020 and have nothing specifically to do with the U.S. A working group involving representatives of governments, the Sport Movement and WADA was set up in 2022, a period when the U.S. was still paying its annual contribution.
"A specific proposal arose out of the working group aimed at better protecting WADA’s funding so that it can deliver on its global collaborative movement for doping-free sport. If WADA’s funding is cut, it is ultimately athletes around the world – including in the U.S. – who will suffer. Indeed, athletes (including those on WADA’s Executive Committee and Foundation Board) have continuously expressed their support for this initiative.
"To be clear, any decision on this matter would be for the WADA Foundation Board, which is comprised of worldwide governments, the Sport Movement and independent members. The next Foundation Board meeting is scheduled for November 2026."
The US have failed to pay WADA since 2024 following on from 23 swimmers from China testing positive for the same banned substance.
Chinese officials claimed that the raft of positive tests came from contaminated food containing the banned substance trimetazidine and that was the conclusion China’s anti-doping agency came to.
That same reason was accepted and not challenged by WADA, with WADA prosecutor Ross Wenzel telling reporters that the organisation "had no credible way to disprove the contamination theory".
With World Aquatics supporting, the swimmers were allowed to compete at the Olympics in Tokyo and won three gold medals.
The US' won silver in two of those aforementioned events, hence their frustration.
2024 dues were withheld by the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) during Joe Biden's final year in office as President, before the same stance was adopted by Trump.
On Tuesday, Trump signed a law that any change in the US paying dues would require an audit “by external anti-doping experts and experienced independent auditors and that is must demonstrate that "WADA’s Executive Committee and Foundation are operating consistently with their duties".
