World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) officials at the Foundation Board meeting in Riyadh,MK sports Saudi Arabia  Photo: courtesy of WADA

An independent report reaffirmed that the World Anti-Doping Agency’s handling of the contamination cases involving 23 Chinese swimmers in 2021 had no fault, a WADA Foundation Board meeting revealed on Thursday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where WADA's Executive Committee also approved several recommendations to strengthen anti-doping protocols, the Global Times has learned from WADA on Friday. 

These measures, including introducing out-of-competition testing conducted independently of national anti-doping organizations and local laboratories, were developed by a working group tasked with acting on the findings of independent prosecutor Eric Cottier's review of the Chinese swimmers' cases, a press release on WADA’s website showed.

The Cottier report concluded that WADA demonstrated no bias toward China and deemed its decision not to appeal the cases to the Court of Arbitration for Sport reasonable, WADA said in September when the full report was released. 

WADA has said in April 2024 in response to Western media reports that it was notified in June 2021 of the decision by the China Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) to accept that the swimmers had tested positive in early 2021 for trimetazidine after inadvertently being exposed to the substance through contamination. WADA concluded that the athletes would be held to have no fault or negligence.

“While the Cottier Report concluded that WADA had appropriately handled the Chinese swimming cases, it was also apparent that these cases presented an opportunity to make improvements, both to the anti-doping rules and the systems and processes in place that support application of those rules,” WADA President Witold Banka told a press conference on Thursday. 

At the meetings in Riyadh, WADA’s Foundation Board also approved WADA’s Strategic Plan (2025-29), which lays the groundwork for WADA to advance its role in developing and implementing anti-doping rules and policies across all sports. 

Olivier Niggli, WADA’s Director General, said the new Strategic Plan is vital to the continued success of the global anti-doping system.

“The new Strategic Plan represents a bold vision for the future. It is built off the solid foundation of our previous Plan and involves program consolidation as we focus on ways to innovate and increase efficiencies across the board,” Niggli said at the meeting.