By Terin Frodyma on SwimSwam
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has launched a new investigation, “Operation Puncture,” in an effort to find the leak in its handling of 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned heart medication prior to the Tokyo 2021 Olympics.
According to Sportschau, the aim of the operation is to find any possible whistleblowers who may have passed along information about doping cases among the 23 swimmers.
The athletes tested positive for trimetazidine (a performance-enhancing drug, primarily used as a medication for chest pain caused by reduced blood flow to the heart), during a pre-olympic training camp in Guangzhou earlier in the Olympic year.
The Chinese Anti-Doping Agency ruled that the tests to be due to a sort of environmental contamination. WADA later let the swimmers subsequently compete in Tokyo, while the Global organization still had not made the case, or its role in letting those athletes compete, public.
The investigation by China and WADA had been quietly kept out of the public eye, until the New York Times and German Broadcaster ARD released reports just last year.
According to the Associated Press, WADA was looking for someone who tipped off the news media about the investigation.
The organization has been running its own sort of whistleblower portal called ‘SpeakUp!’ which is used to identify potential doping infractions. Jens Sejer-Andersen, the founder of “Play the Game”, a sports policy watchdog organization, described the investigation as “an obvious contradiction between having a whole department to support and encourage whistleblowers, on the one hand, and on the other starting to chase whistleblowers that WADA regards as challenging to their interests.”
Minky Worden, the director of global initiatives with Human Rights Watch told ARD that “All organizations have an obligation to protect whistleblowers. This is especially important where China is concerned because China is known to retaliate against whistleblowers.”
According to AP News, Günter Younger, the director of Intelligence and Investigations at WADA, said the operation was enacted to learn about the leak, and not directly look for the whistleblower.
This case has been been a big point of contention within the sport, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has been critical of WADA, which has led them to withhold their annual $3.6 million payment.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: WADA Launches “Operation Puncture” In Effort to Find Leak in Chinese Doping Case
