U.S. keeps threatening world anti-doping authorities with defunding

For years now, some U.S. lawmakers have been interfering with the work of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) by threatening not to pay the country's million-dollar annual funding obligations. Such behavior may have undermined the fair play rules of sports and may ruin Salt Lake City's efforts to hold the 2034 Winter Olympics.

The lawmakers' latest effort is a bill proposed in the U.S. congress during the Paris Olympics which, if passed, will allow the country's drug control authority to not finance WADA.

As of July 19, the U.S. has paid none of its $3,624,983 obligations for 2024, according to an official WADA report. Meanwhile China, Canada and most European countries have fulfilled their promises.

The U.S. government is WADA's largest public authority contributor among all countries. But overall, the largest contributor has always been the Olympic Movement, which promises to fund the amount of all governments combined. As a result, the U.S. contribution accounts for around 7.25 percent of WADA's almost $50 million core funding.

The percentage is agreed on by governments in the Americas, while the Americas' total share – 29 percent – is outlined in the Copenhagen Declaration signed at the second World Conference on Doping in Sport back in 2003.

This is not the first time the U.S. has threatened to defund WADA. In 2020, the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy wrote a report to Congress suggesting that the country should withhold funding unless given greater representation in WADA.

Read more: U.S. anti-doping law fuels global controversy on jurisdiction in sports governance

Currently, WADA's 42-member foundation board involves representatives from public authorities from all over the world, including four members for the Americas, three for Africa, four for Asia, five for Europe and two for Oceania.

Not satisfied with WADA's continuous reforms, the U.S. held nearly half of its dues in 2021 – about $1.3 million – until early in the following year.

WADA warned in 2020 that pulling the fund could leave U.S. athletes out of the Olympics, as the International Olympic Committee requires all athletes to comply with the World Anti-Doping Code, the enforcement of which is carried out by WADA.

The U.S. investigation on World Aquatics about the 23 Chinese swimmers – the reason behind the latest U.S. financial threat to WADA – also carries great risk for the Americans. The Association of Summer Olympic International Federations said in a statement that "the investigation may lead international federations to consider the risks of allocating future international events to the U.S."

Salt Lake City in the U.S. has been chosen as the host city of the 2034 Winter Olympics, but with a condition – local organizers must properly address concerns regarding the U.S. government's own doping investigations, and respect WADA as the lead authority on doping cases in the Olympics.

While pushing WADA to reform and investigating the already-cleared cases for Chinese swimmers, the U.S. anti-doping authority has been applying double standards to domestic and foreign athletes by letting U.S. athletes who tested positive for banned drugs to continue competing as undercover agents, which leads to a violation of its own rules and the WADA rules.

Read more: How U.S. double standards twist international sports