Michael Phelps warns Congress that doping problems threaten Olympics

Phelps and fellow four-time gold medalist Allison Schmitt described careers that involved regular drug tests to prove they were clean. Schmitt apologized to the committee for detailing how she and other American swimmers had to constantly pull down their “pants to their knees and their shirts to their breasts and ask the (drug screeners) to look at the pee to go out “.

“This is what we signed up for,” she added. “And that’s what we will continue to do to fight for this clean sport.”

Phelps said he had to be one of the most tested American Olympic athletes of all time.

“If everybody doesn’t do that and I submit to that, it’s just not right,” he said.

The hearing, held at night to accommodate the tight schedules of swimmers and some committee members, was part of a push by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to withhold some of the $3.7 million that the United States pays to help fund the World Anti-Doping Association. agency until WADA releases the information contained in the report that Chinese doping officials provided to them in 2021. Several committee members said they would support withholding money from WADA, although this is not the responsibility of the committee and that it would take months.

USADA CEO Travis Tygart, who has been one of WADA’s strongest critics, also testified, asking Congress to challenge a system in which the International Olympic Committee’s ties to WADA have of the organization “a companion dog instead of a guard dog”.

WADA officials, who appointed an independent prosecutor to review positive tests in China, did not attend the hearing, although they were invited by the commission. WADA officials have repeatedly said they do not have enough evidence to challenge Chinese anti-doping authorities’ findings that the 23 positive tests for trimetazidine were accidental ingestions and that they cannot investigate in person due to pandemic restrictions at the time. in China.

In a statement, WADA President Witold Banka said: “Some in the United States continue to claim that WADA acted inappropriately or showed bias against China, although that there is no evidence to support this theory. »

He added that the 23 positive tests “have become a hot political issue” in the United States.

“The AMA understands the strained relations that exist between the Chinese and American governments and has no mandate to be part of it,” Banka continued in the statement.