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Documents Reveal WADA Lost Access to Over 2,000 Cases Due to Computer Glitch Before Olympics
According to documents obtained by the New York Times, officials at the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) were notified of a computer glitch that caused the organization to lose access to over 2,000 cases just weeks before the start of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The information was originally presented by WADA lawyers at a meeting in late May, in which WADA officials were warned that the organization had also lost access to over 900 test results from athletes facing active doping allegations. As a result, the lawyers pointed out that the organization had lost the ability to accurately track the cases of athletes who would be competing in Paris.
According to the report, none of this information had previously been made available to anyone outside of the WADA’s top officials, with the information even being withheld from members of the WADA executive board composed of athletes, coaches, and representatives from around the world, furthering the implications that it might have for the organization.
This new data comes at a time when the WADA is already facing intense backlash from sporting and governmental organizations worldwide. Back in early April, it was reported that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive for the banned substance TMZ at a national team training camp just a few months shy of the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games. Despite the positive tests, the WADA cleared all the swimmers involved of any wrongdoing and allowed them to compete in Tokyo, with the news not surfacing until this year. The cases coming to light just before Paris raised serious concerns about the integrity of the organization, with the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) blasting the organization on several occasions and the US government threatening to pull funding from the WADA. However, an independent prosecutor cleared the WADA of any wrongdoing or bias in the case.
Despite WADA’s computer glitch, the International Testing Agency (ITA) recently released its testing numbers from Paris, showing a 4% increase in doping tests administered compared to Tokyo with over 4,100 athletes tested. Of those tests, only five returned positive results, with none of the tests coming in any of the aquatic disciplines.
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