The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has invited independent prosecutor Eric Cottier to conduct a thorough review of WADA’s handling of the Chinese doping scandal in which 23 swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine (TMZ).
23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for the banned substance TMZ at the start of the calendar year in 2021, about seven months before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The swimmers were not sanctioned by CHINADA as traces of TMZ were reportedly found present in the hotel the swimmers stayed at. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) upheld CHINADA’s decision.
WADA has tasked Cottier to present his opinion on two main questions:
- Is there any indication of bias towards China, undue interference or other impropriety in WADA’s assessment of the decision by CHINADA not to bring forward anti-doping rule violations against the 23 Chinese swimmers?
- Based on a review of the case file related to the decision by CHINADA not to bring forward anti-doping rule violations against the 23 Chinese swimmers, as well as any other elements that WADA had at its disposal, was the decision by WADA not to challenge on appeal the contamination scenario put forward by CHINADA a reasonable one?
Cottier will be allowed full access to all of WADA’s files and documents on the matter and will be allowed to consult with any experts to reach conclusions. A timeline for his findings expect the review to begin in the next few days with a findings report to come “within two months” WADA said. Upon Cotter’s report, the WADA Executive Committee which has 16 members consisting of athletes, Governments, and the Sport Movement, will then assess the report and consider next steps.
The US Anti-Doping Agency (USASA) CEO Travis Tygart already given a statement on the announcement from WADA telling the New York Times, “It’s hard to view this as anything other than a whitewash given the ongoing threats and attacks.” Tygart continued, “Clearly it’s precooked. WADA’s statement exemplifies the problem with the current system. WADA does not follow its own rules, and then it gets to handpick an attorney from its own backyard and also sets the scope of that handpicked attorney’s review.”
Cottier has 39 years of experience as a prosecutor and is currently a member of the Board of the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law and also is a Prosecutor at the federal level in Switzerland. Before his current work, he was the Attorney General of the Canton de Vaud in Switzerland from 2005 until retiring in 2022. He also spent time at several courts in Switzerland from 1984-2005.
WADA’s headquarters are located in Montreal, Canada but is a Swiss Foundation as it was set up in 1999 in Lausanne, Switzerland. WADA’s statutes are approved and registered by Swiss Authorities.
any word on when ITA will wrap up their investigation? I don’t know enough about them to know what the scope of their investigation is, but they seem to have enough separation from WADA and USADA to make their findings useful.
How much is Cottier being paid?
Hand-picked! All these people are intertwined in corruption and beholden to China!
This will all be swept under the carpet! Pity the next person to fail a test. He will be made an example of. Think of others that were given a ban for these circumstances Sport is getting ugly, who can you trust!
Nice try on “independent”–he does not qualify in this context.
So after doping the athletes, someone sprayed trimetazidine all over the kitchen. Problem solved! :(((
10 weeks later
If you’ve got 3 positives, scramble to make it 23.
It reminds me of one day when I was a kid and peed in my pants on a public boardwalk. I quickly dashed to the bathroom and splashed water everywhere on my pants. Total blend and problem solved.
Consider you Miles Davis
WADA: If they have the evidence of 23 people were not in the same hotel we will be in trouble. Find out the whistleblower!
CHINA: working on it!
Hmmm, according to what I can.find online this guy is not controversy free in his legal carrier. I would rather just see this matter escalated to an outside party like CAS.
Can you share more information on this? I’m having difficulty finding anything on him beyond being asked to do this.
Just looking but you need to have some search terms in german or french
Staatsanwalt eric cottier
Look up his name in French and set a custom date in the search engine you’re using to filter out this week with the WADA news.
Everything was in French and about politics I am not familiar with from sources I’m not familiar with so I didn’t want to link possibly dubious information. However what I did see was enough to make me feel comfortable declaring he doesn’t have an universal reputation as someone uncorruptable.
Hand picking a name tells you all you need to know about WADA’s motives and integrity. It should be multiple names and none of them known by WADA or revealed to WADA until the review begins.
I looked him up in the NZZ (which is a Swiss and one of the most important and prestigious newspapers in the German-speaking world and a trustworthy source)
There were three situations in his biography that stood out.
1) he prosecuted a bunch of climate activists, who were backed by a political rival of his, and when he lost the case, he started a smear campaign against them. In that article he was described as “the already unpopular state prosecutor of Kanton Vaud”.
Petty and vindictive.
2) a case he was asked to investigate, in which Jacques Pitteloud, the Swiss ambassador in Washington and former head of Swiss intelligence allegedly offered to “help” two Kenyan businessmen with their corruption… Read more »