WADA wants American dollars.
Just in case you missed this. The World Anti-Doping Agency is suggesting that the United States Olympic Team could be excluded from the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics. The reason? The United States does not want to pay into the agency that is in charge of getting banned substances out of the Olympics and other sporting activities. Witold Bańka, who is the president of the group claims WADA had been approached by nations calling on WADA to introduce legislation which would see the US become non-compliant with the WADA Code should it withhold funding. That would mean kicking the United States out of the Olympics which would be a very difficult situation for the International Olympic Committee. After all, the United States based media company Comcast through NBC Sports heavily invests in the Games.
How can a non-governmental group such as the World Anti-Doping Agency have any authority? WADA functions as a shadow government agency. WADA is funded by taxpayers around the world including those in the United States and although the budget is small, it is pretty well hidden that taxpayers that have nothing to do with sports around the world and supporting drug testing and drug research to control elite athletes. There seems to be three points that WADA considers when the quasi-global government agency decides what is a legal drug. Will it enhance performance? Is it detrimental to the health of an athlete? Is it against the ‘spirit of sports’? Russia was tossed from the 2018 Olympics by the IOC for a doping scheme although Russia had many allies Russia saying should be there. The IOC and the World Anti-Doping Agency were at odds over whether Russia should have competed in the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics. Russia did participate with the IOC’s backing after WADA suggested a ban.
WADA wants American money or else.
