Michael Phelps believes rules should be enforced in different ways.
Michael Phelps testified before the House Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Tuesday. He spoke against the World Anti-Doping Agency and called for consistent application of rules regarding anti-doping moving forward.
“We need to hold them responsible.”
The hearing was in regards to an investigation of two dozen Chinese swimmers and alleged doping. These swimmers tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine months before the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo.
The Chinese swimmers went onto win medals and Phelps argued against the overall handling of the case. It is apparently under independent review and Phelps believes Congress should use leverage.
“It can’t reasonably be a coincidence that WADA has yet again succumbed to the pressures of international sport. Close friends were potentially impacted by failure to follow its own rule in investigating the nearly two dozen positive tests on Chinese swimmers/ Many of them will live with the ‘what ifs’ for the rest of their lives.”
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Travis Tygart, the CEO of the US Anti-Doping Agency, also testified and accused WADA and CHINADA of covering up these positive tests.
“As athletes, our faith can no longer be blindly placed in the World Anti-Doping Agency, an organization that continues to prove that it is either incapable or unwilling to enforce its policies consistently around the world.”
Athletes discussed inconsistencies in testing and the overall rules across different nations and competitions. Phelps continued to discuss how he was tested over 150 times for different substances while others saw their athletes tested 30 or 40 times combined.
Overall, Michael Phelps wants to handling of these situations to be done in a clean and consistent way.
“If I can control myself and be the best version of myself, that should be enough. I think people are doing that now and people are cheating and that needs to change. So, I think that’s why we’re here today, to fight for that change for the next generation.”
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