Key facts
- US drug czar Sara Carter criticized WADA's proposed anti-doping changes.
- Carter believes the proposals could undermine clean sport at the Olympics.
- The proposals stem from a doping case involving Chinese swimmers.
- The US was not invited to a WADA meeting discussing these recommendations.
- WADA cited the US's non-payment of dues as the reason for exclusion.
Sara Carter, the director of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, has strongly criticized proposed changes to anti-doping protocols by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). In an open letter sent Monday, Carter stated that the recommendations, developed in the wake of a doping case involving Chinese swimmers, could "undermine the trustworthiness of the performances of competitors" at future Olympic Games.
Carter specifically derided the "unjustifiable exclusion" of U.S. authorities from an upcoming "extraordinary meeting" of the WADA executive committee, where the recommendations will be discussed. WADA spokesman James Fitzgerald explained that the U.S. was not invited because its government has refused to pay its WADA dues, a point of contention in a broader dispute between the U.S. and the global anti-doping regulator, exacerbated by the handling of Russian and Chinese doping scandals.