PARIS (AP) — The FBI’s international reach to detain sports officials has Olympic leaders concerned about its investigation into how a Chinese swimmers doping case was handled.
The swimmers’ case now being scrutinized by U.S. investigators using a federal anti-doping law “jeopardizes the safety of officials and people in the Olympic movement,” International Olympic Committee member and former NBA great Pau Gasol said Friday.
Fallout from the FBI serving a witness subpoena to a top American swimming official in June saw the IOC exert political pressure on Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and Salt Lake City officials in Paris before awarding the 2034 Winter Games hosting rights.
“I know it might not be fair; it might not be something that any of us wanted Salt Lake City and their group to deal with,” Gasol told reporters about extracting public promises from Gov. Cox on July 24 to lobby Congress on behalf of the Olympic movement.
“It’s nothing personal. It’s not that the IOC is trying to be unwelcoming or ungrateful,” said the two-time NBA champion, who was elected to the Olympic body by his fellow athletes in Tokyo in 2021.
But, he added, “we cannot ignore this big issue that is on the table that is coming from U.S. soil.”
The FBI seems to be targeting the World Anti-Doping Agency for accepting Chinese state authorities’ claim in 2021 about how 23 swimmers tested positive for a banned heart medication.
Mass contamination in a hotel kitchen was cited without evidence to prove it at a time when investigators from Montreal-based WADA could not travel to China during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The athletes were not suspended and combined to win three gold medals weeks later at the Tokyo Olympics.
The U.S. gave itself jurisdiction over suspected doping conspiracies with the Rodchenkov Act, passed with bipartisan support in 2020. It is named for the whistleblower who exposed Russian state cheating a decade ago.
The law was passed despite lobbying from WADA and Olympic officials warning of overreach in the U.S., which will host the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles. Gasol won his NBA titles with the L.A. Lakers and is part of an IOC panel overseeing the Games’ preparations.
“It led to an official being detained by the FBI on U.S. soil,” Gasol said of the law, also cautioning authorities there could “detain people potentially also, from my understanding, outside of U.S. soil.”
“So this has to be addressed and this has to be resolved,” said the five-time Olympian, who won two silver medals and one bronze for Spain.
The IOC’s leverage over Salt Lake City, agreed to by the bid team in Paris on July 24, is a termination clause in the hosting contract if the U.S. does not respect the global authority of WADA.
“We acknowledged that they could be helpful, and they acknowledged they can be helpful,” Gasol said.
The IOC showed it was “very excited and impressed” to send the games back to Utah and Salt Lake City, which hosted the 2002 Winter Games.
“It’s really blossoming into an incredible place,” Gasol said. “The Winter Olympic Games will just continue to reinforce that in every way.”
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