The Chinese Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) on Friday slammed the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and the New York Times for "false claims" about a contamination case involving Chinese swimmers, criticized the U.S. for "long-arm jurisdiction" and called for targeted testing of American swimmers following the "purple faces" controversy.  

CHINADA released a statement on Friday after Independent Prosecutor Eric Cottier presented the final report on the no-fault contamination cases involving 23 Chinese swimmers to the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) executive committee meeting.

"The Independent Prosecutor's final report once again shows the reasonableness of CHINADA's investigation into and decision on the cases, and proves there is no such thing as a 'cover-up' in the cases as deliberately fabricated and unfoundedly accused by certain organizations and media outlets like the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), the New York Times and the German broadcaster ARD," read the statement. "Meanwhile, the full report also demonstrates that the existing anti-doping system is open, transparent and trustworthy to athletes worldwide."

The final report reaffirmed WADA's decision not to appeal the cases was reasonable, that WADA showed no favoritism or in any way benefited the 23 swimmers, and that there is no evidence of any intervention or interference with WADA's review, whether internal to the agency or external to it, from any entity or institution, including CHINADA or the Chinese authorities.

"The report also points out that, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, CHINADA had carried out an investigation to the best of its ability, and had been collaborative, open and transparent in its active communication with both WADA and FINA (now known as the World Aquatics)," said CHINADA.

CHINADA also accused USADA of politicalizing the issue and criticized its initiation of the use of the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act.

"In disregard of the basic factual findings by the Independent Prosecutor in his report, USADA instigated the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to initiate a 'long-arm jurisdiction' over this case by opening an investigation through the 'jurisdiction' granted by the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act," said CHINADA. "Such a 'double standard' behavior of attempting to overstep the boundaries of jurisdiction over other countries while turning a blind eye to its long history of doping problems has aroused widespread concern in the international community."

CHINADA went on to call for targeted testing of American swimmers following the "purple faces" controversy during the Paris Olympics.

"We have also noticed the 'purple faces' of the American swimmers during the Paris Olympic Games that no athletes from other countries had," it said. "There have been various speculations and doubts about the 'purple faces' from media worldwide, such as the use of some prohibited substances that are difficult to detect at present (ITPP for example), which we found not unreasonable."

"We therefore strongly call on relevant anti-doping organizations to follow up these American swimmers for target testing. To clear up the public doubts, we also call for long-term storage of the samples collected during Paris 2024, more research on targeted detection methods, and further analysis of these athletes' samples or reanalysis of the samples when new detection methods are available."

(With input from Xinhua)