br>
This week, the head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), Travis Tygart, said that drug testing of Russian athletes does not meet world standards and that to say otherwise is “a slap in the face to clean athletes.” At the same time, a very strange story is unfolding in the anti-doping system of the United States itself, which brings to mind an old Russian proverb. Sports correspondent explains.
Travis Tygart is a longtime whistleblower of Russian sports. On any topic, he will definitely give a comment, which, as a rule, is completely far from objectivity. For example, before a hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in the case of Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, the USADA chief said: “Justice looks defeated for athletes who have been waiting almost two years for their medals.” As if it would be fairer to cut in hastily, without discerning who is right and who is wrong.
However, Tygart always blames the Russians. This is an axiom that follows from any of his statements. Including those that were published in a story by the Associated Press news agency on Wednesday. The reason for its appearance is the admission of Russian athletes to the Olympic Games in Paris in a neutral status. The article does not say that this status implies the actual end of a Russian athlete’s career in his country. But it is being widely asserted that our athletes do not meet the criteria for anti-doping control.
“
“Everything is not as it is portrayed: to say that Russian athletes are subject to the same standards as others, “is a slap in the face to clean athletes,” Tygart said, commenting on the article’s information that top American athletes are allegedly tested two or three times more often than their potential Russian competitors.
In response to a request to evaluate the words of the chief of the American anti-doping service, the press service of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) sent the most extensive release in all the years of communication with her. If we lower the waters, the point is that the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), despite its remaining status of non-compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code, continues to test athletes, and this year alone has taken 10 and a half thousand samples. Also, under the programs of the International Testing Agency (ITA), more than 1000 samples were taken from athletes in Russia and Belarus.
“
“Once again, we note that RUSADA is not limited in any way in its operational activities, that in itself is already confirmation that the testing of Russian athletes meets all international standards,» they said in response to a request from RUSADA. “This year we will fulfill the plan of 11 thousand samples, and this is one of the best indicators in the world.»
As for data taken from statistics on testing specific athletes (the article, for example, provides the number of samples taken from swimmers Evgeniy Rylov, Kliment Kolesnikov and Evgenia Chikunova, fencers Pavel Sukhov and Nikita Glazkov, as well as a number of gymnasts), RUSADA recalled: that the statistics on the organization’s website are based only on samples collected by itself. “Many leading athletes are included in international testing pools, and this means constant monitoring by the international federation,” RUSADA said, and in practice this means that there are several times more tests taken per year.
Finally, you can look at the statistics published on the WADA website. So, in 2021, RUSADA took 10,001 doping tests. This is the third indicator in the world. Only China and Germany tested more for doping. For comparison, 7,017 samples were taken in the USA (this is the sixth figure, more are also in France and Italy), slightly less in the UK. Let us remind you that all samples from Russia are taken to foreign laboratories, so any fraud is completely excluded here.
However, WADA still, as if routinely, concludes: “Despite this and taking into account history, «The attitude towards Russia remains skeptical and wary. We must remain vigilant and ensure that no stone is left unturned when it comes to ensuring that all the necessary tests have been carried out before the Paris Olympics.»
Well, vigilance is good. Recently a topic arose for which this word fits perfectly. Here's the thing. USADA has announced that it is changing its system for entering whereabouts data for American athletes. Doping test availability information was entered through the Athlete Express app, and from January 1, 2024, athletes will be required to use the Athlete Connect app. More precisely, even earlier: on the USADA website there is a message that athletes need to enter information about their whereabouts in the first quarter of 2024 in the new application by December 15, 2023.
What is in this information embarrassing? Yes, that in Russia, as in other countries, athletes included in testing pools enter data about the time windows during which they are available for out-of-competition doping control on the ADAMS system website or in a related application. ADAMS is not the name of the developer, but an abbreviation, and it stands for “Anti-Doping Administration and Management System.”
ADAMS is used both to collect and store information about the whereabouts of athletes, and to enter data on approvals for therapeutic use of prohibited drugs, as well as processing sample test results. This data is stored on WADA servers. The organization’s website states that they are protected in the same way as bank data. Well, if you go to the website of any anti-doping agency, then, as a rule, on the main page there will be a link to enter the personal account of this very ADAMS system.
Anyone – but not quite. You cannot find any links to the ADAMS system on the US Anti-Doping Agency website. And there are literally too many mentions of this system. USADA has its own database and interface. And it is he who changes a little more than six months before the Olympic Games in Paris. Which, by the way, is what some leading American athletes are unhappy with.
But their main dissatisfaction is that they will have to learn a new program, errors in working with which can lead to very serious problems. If the doping officer does not find the athlete at the address that he indicated as his place of stay in a certain time window, he will give him a so-called flag. Three such flags in a year are disqualification (unless, of course, there were good reasons for absence from the specified address). Who knows, either you don’t know how to press buttons on the keyboard, or you’re hiding from out-of-competition doping control?
We are more concerned, of course, not with the computer literacy of American athletes, but with questions of a slightly different kind . For example, these. Does WADA have access to the USADA database? Is athlete whereabouts information reported to ADAMS? Are the apps used by the Americans licensed by the World Anti-Doping Agency? And finally, the main one. Is this possible?
In response to all these questions, the WADA press service only answered that in the United States, from January 1, 2024, the web application for entering data on the availability of athletes for doping control is changing. And that «WADA is working with USADA to ensure that this information is available in the ADAMS system.» WADA advised asking the remaining questions directly to USADA.
But this answer, in principle, is enough to conclude: the anti-doping system is in The US is extremely far from being transparent. Their own application, their own database, which WADA, judging by their words, does not control — how does this all differ from the system that the notorious Grigory Rodchenkov created in Russia and for which Russian sports are still taking the rap? By the way, the ex-director of the Moscow laboratory, who has been in the United States since 2014, could give suitable advice on its creation. As a good Russian proverb says, the words “stop the thief” are shouted loudest by the thief himself. Is this why Mr. Tygart’s statements are so militant and loud?