WADA President Witold Banka reacted calmly to the USA’s official halt to funding for the World Anti-Doping Agency.
“I wish we could get this money, but we are still financially stable, money is not our biggest problem,” Banka said in Milan the day before the opening ceremony of the Olympics.
The USA stopped its WADA funding by law on Tuesday. The law, signed by President Donald Trump, contains language that ensures that the US’s annual contributions to WADA of almost four million dollars (about 3.35 million euros) are linked to the results of a “independent” examination are linked. This investigation is intended to ensure that WADA “works in accordance with their tasks”.
USA’s largest donor member countries
WADA rejects such an investigation. The USA is the largest donor among WADA member countries, providing a total of 50 percent of the budget.
Banka said in Milan that he had no information that Trump had signed the law; in any case, there were no more than one “technical requirement” in dealing with an impending budget freeze in the USA. The passage concerning WADA only takes up a fraction of the content of the budget law in question.
Banka also emphasized that he saw no reason for the requested independent review. “I am not aware of any other international organization that is subject to such strict control mechanisms as WADA. Therefore, I see no reason why our friends in the USA should not contribute their contributions,” Banka said. He remains confident and hopes that “pay them back soon” would.
ARD revelations on Chinese doping cases
The dispute between the two sides erupted in April 2024 after ARD revealed that WADA had not followed up on suspected doping cases involving 23 Chinese swimmers since 2021.
This raised questions about the handling of the cases and WADA’s overall priorities – questions that a nominally independent but very limited investigation by Swiss prosecutor Eric Cottier in 2024 hardly answered.
Gene Sykes, head of the US National Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), emphasized in Milan: “It is important to all of us, including the International Olympic Committee, that these problems are resolved, especially with a view to the upcoming Olympic Games.” The USA will host the next Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028 and the Winter Games in 2034 Salt Lake City.
