World Anti-Doping Agency Tables Funds Withholding Discussion, Area of Conflict with U.S.
The World Anti-Doping Agency referred for further discussion the “voluntary withholding of contributions by governments” at its latest Executive Committee meeting on Tuesday. That decision turns down the heat for the moment on an area of conflict between it and the United States.
The Associated Press last week reported that it had obtained correspondence between WADA and European officials of a proposal to rewrite its rules to ban government officials of nations withholding contributions from national sporting events under WADA’s purview, including those hosted within a country.
In its first ExCo meeting of 2026, WADA listed the issue among those discussed. It referred it for further discussion at the next board meeting in September and the WADA Foundation Board meeting in November.
“This important and complex matter has been under consideration by the ExCo since 2020 and discussed on many occasions,” WADA said in its press summary of the meeting. “A working group, involving representatives of Governments, the Sport Movement and WADA, was set up in 2022 to advance the matter.” It added a statement by Director General Olivier Niggli:
“The withholding of contributions by Governments for political or other voluntary reasons remains a serious topic of concern for all WADA’s stakeholders. Funding instability has a direct effect on the functioning and development of the World Anti-Doping Program. Ultimately, those who are most directly and most negatively impacted are athletes around the world.”
While not naming the United States or the Trump Administration, that is part of the conversation, even if the issue of interactions between WADA and non-contributing nations predates this current dustup.
Last week’s AP report put this summer’s FIFA World Cup, the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics and the 2034 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics as among those where officials from non-contributing governments could be barred. (The timing of Tuesday’s news, shunting the discussion to September, obviates the possibility of the World Cup being affected.)
WADA, as has been its pattern, attempted to preempt reports, specifically by the Associated Press, about such a ban.
From that WADA statement, issued last Friday:
“In fact, discussions related to the issue of governments unilaterally withholding funding from WADA have been ongoing since early 2020 and have nothing specifically to do with the U.S. A working group involving representatives of governments, the Sport Movement and WADA was set up in 2022, a period when the U.S. was still paying its annual contribution.
“A specific proposal arose out of the working group aimed at better protecting WADA’s funding so that it can deliver on its global collaborative movement for doping-free sport. If WADA’s funding is cut, it is ultimately athletes around the world – including in the U.S. – who will suffer. Indeed, athletes (including those on WADA’s Executive Committee and Foundation Board) have continuously expressed their support for this initiative.”
The United States has held back funding in 2024 and 2025 from WADA, over its handling of 23 positive tests within the Chinese swimming program in 2021 before the Tokyo Olympics. WADA then assented to a ruling by the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency of environmental contamination as the reason why swimmers were given a pass for a performance-enhancing drug in their system. Those swimmers were allowed to swim at the Tokyo Olympics. WADA cleared itself of wrongdoing after appointing an independent investigator.
Revelations of the scandal surfaced before the 2024 Paris Olympics. The American denial of funds to WADA dates to the Biden Administration and has garnered bipartisan support. It is one of the biggest contributors to WADA – about $7.3 million of a budget of $57.5 million – which relies on international funding for its governance of clean sport. WADA has already removed American representation from its Executive Committee in the wake of American protests of the Chinese doping scandal.
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