An official from the World Anti-Doping Agency assisted in a controversial investigation by the US Anti-Doping Agency which involved recruiting athletes to provide information on potential dopers, the Guardian understands.
An Observer investigation, which revealed last month how a Kenyan runner became an undercover agent, has sparked a war of words between the agencies, the two most powerful anti-doping organisations in world sport. Wada has accused Usada of breaching its code by recruiting athletes who had failed drugs tests to provide intelligence.
Wada insists it was informed about the sting in 2021, five years after it began, at which point the agency says it made it clear all such operations should cease.
But the Guardian understands a senior Wada investigator aided 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 informed.
Before the Olympics, Usada led the international criticism of Wada over its failure to challenge Chinese authorities over 23 positive tests for TMZ and two positive tests for metandienone among its swimming team. The two organisations clashed again on the issue during Paris 2024.
Wada’s complaint against Usada is that undercover athletes who had doped remained competing and received either reduced sentences or no sentence because they were providing “substantial assistance” on hardcore doping.
Sources close to World Athletics, the sport’s governing body, have indicated that the Usada undercover investigation, which saw athletes informing on African and US-based training groups, was crucial in breaking doping networks and helped to clean up the sport.
However, a Wada spokesperson said: “Wada was not notified of this scheme prior to 2021 and did not sign off on it. Wada has no record that its investigator at the time was notified of this practice.
“In any event, [the investigator] would not have had the authority to approve this practice [the recruiting of dopers], which was conducted by Usada completely outside of the rules. There is no provision in the world anti-doping code … to allow for this practice, which is deeply unfair to other athletes. That is why, when Wada’s legal department discovered in the fall of 2021 what Usada had been doing, it immediately instructed Usada in writing to desist.”
Wada said that in the case highlighted by the Observer “that athlete had their provisional suspension lifted shortly after notification, and they proceeded to compete for years, finally accepting a sanction in August 2021”, adding: “Despite being required to do so under the rules, Usada did not notify Wada of its decision to lift the provisional suspension, which is an appealable decision. If it had notified Wada of that decision (and the reasons for it), Wada would have appealed and immediately shut down the scheme.”
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Anti-doping agencies other than Usada have pointed to the Wada code, which allows programmes similar to that run by the American organisation. The Wada code says: “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 public disclosure.”
Travis Tygart, the chief executive 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 the US federal law enforcement [the Drug Enforcement Agency and FBI] investigation into a human and drug trafficking scheme.
“The athletes provided intelligence to federal law enforcement, Usada, and the federation that led to criminal charges and anti-doping rule violations. Usada collaborated closely with Wada and the IF [World Athletics] to ensure that those engaging in doping violations, as well as criminal offences, were identified and prosecuted to the fullest extent possible.”
