WADA considers independent pre‑Games drug testing after 2021 Chinese cases

The World Anti-Doping Agency is weighing a major change to how athletes are tested before big competitions, moving toward having at least some pre‑event tests handled by an independent organization after revelations about Chinese swimmers who were cleared to compete in 2021 despite failing tests.

The revelation, first published by The New York Times in 2024, showed that Chinese officials who conducted the tests did not penalize the swimmers, and that WADA knew about the tests but chose not to intervene. The swimmers tested positive for the drug trimetazidine; the Chinese antidoping regulator found that the ingestion was inadvertent through food contamination, and WADA said it agreed with that account while denying it had done anything wrong.

WADA has commissioned a working group to study the feasibility of shifting at least part of pre‑competition testing to an independent body. The discussions are too late to affect the Winter Olympics beginning this week in Italy, but WADA officials say the change could come into play before the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

The working group is expected to provide its findings in March, and WADA’s director general, Olivier Niggli, said, “This is not something that would take ages to be implemented.” The proposal has drawn criticism and debate. Swimming’s global governing body recommended that WADA stop permitting countries to test their own athletes.

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