The International Olympic Committee plunged its own realm deeper into dispute today in Paris when it effectively told the FBI, the USA Government, American taxpayers and U.S. lawmakers to humble themselves in the presence of “the supreme authority of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada).”

In what looked like a mass act of shooting self in foot, given that the United States is the source of billions in American investment in the Olympic Movement, Olympic bosses lined up in agreement with each other alongside the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) and Salt Lake City teams falling in line ahead of a vote that gave the Utah bidders: the United States, and its Rodchenkov Act, were not in compliance with the WADA Code.

The penalty was prospective, in the form of a threat: a clause is to be written into the Olympic Host Contract to that any nation organising the Games, summer for winter, as Salt Lake City will do when there’s a chill in the wind in 2034, will have its hosting rights removed if “the supreme authority of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) ... is not fully respected or if the application of the World Anti-Doping Code is hindered or undermined”.

That phrase, which could also be applied to LA2028, is the IOC’s answer to the dispute over a Wada decision not to challenge a Chinese ruling that cleared 23 swimmers of blame after they tested positive for the banned heart booster trimetazidine (TMZ) in January 2021.

In response to the IOC threat, Travis Tygart,  Armstrong slayer and head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada), to say that the “World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) is just a sport lapdog, and clean athletes have little chance.”

The USADA statement in full:

“We are thrilled the U.S. will host the 2034 Winter Games in Salt Lake and we will do everything in our authority to ensure those Games are fair and clean, as what country wants to invest in fraudulent Games that are not played by the rules? Of course, we do have full respect for the World Anti-Doping Code, which is why we are so shocked by WADA leadership’s decision to turn their back on the rules in the case of the 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive and to allow China to cover them up. It is shocking to see the IOC itself stooping to threats in an apparent effort to silence those seeking answers to what are now known as facts. It seems more apparent than ever that WADA violated the rules and needs accountability and reform to truly be the global watchdog that clean athletes need.

"Today’s demonstration further showed that as it stands today, WADA is just a sport lapdog, and clean athletes have little chance. If WADA has nothing to hide, they would welcome the chance to answer questions, not run and hide. The IOC should be leading the charge to protect clean sport, and it will be devastating to clean athletes around the globe to see a blind eye turned toward these positive tests. We will continue to call for a strong, independent WADA and for transparency over threats. There are basic unanswered questions of how WADA allowed China to sweep 23 tests under the rug, and athletes and the public still deserve answers.”

Read the Global Athlete statement on the same issue in full here.

In the rest of this article: What Katie Ledecky said in Paris today; what IOC leaders Thomas Bach, of Germany, and John Coates, of Australia, said in Paris; what Utah Governor Spencer Cox said in Paris