By Steve Keating
(Reuters) -World Aquatics executive director Brent Nowicki has been subpoenaed by the U.S. government to testify in an investigation into how 23 Chinese swimmers avoided punishment after testing positive for banned drugs weeks ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.
A U.S. House of Representatives committee in May called on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to launch inquiries ahead of this year's Paris Olympics into the doping case that has rocked the sport.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has come under increasing criticism and pressure to provide answers on how the those swimmers, some of whom went on to win gold medals in Tokyo, escaped punishment.
"World Aquatics can confirm that its Executive Director, Brent Nowicki, was served with a witness subpoena by the United States government," World Aquatics said in a statement to Reuters.
"He is working to schedule a meeting with the government, which, in all likelihood, will obviate the need for testimony before a Grand Jury."
The FBI, in a statement to Reuters on Friday, said it could not confirm or deny any investigation.
Representatives for the U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
WADA said it was aware of the investigation but had not been contacted by law enforcement and again defended its handling of the case.
"WADA reviewed the Chinese swimmer case file diligently, consulted with scientific and legal experts, and ultimately determined that it was in no position to challenge the contamination scenario, such that an appeal was not warranted," said WADA in a statement.
"Guided by science and expert consultations, we stand by that good-faith determination in the face of the incomplete and misleading news reports on which this investigation appears to be based."
The New York Times reported in April that the 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine (TMZ), a medication that increases blood flow to the heart and is used to treat angina.
The swimmers were cleared by a Chinese investigation which said they were inadvertently exposed to the drug through contamination.
An independent investigation of WADA's handling of the case by Swiss prosecutor Eric Cottier could be published as early as next week.
RODCHENKOV ACT
Any DOJ investigation would fall under the Rodchenkov Act legislation passed in 2020 that extends U.S. law enforcement jurisdiction to any international sporting competitions that involve American athletes or have financial connections to the United States.
Named after Grigory Rodchenkov, a former Russian anti-doping laboratory head who turned whistleblower and helped expose Russia's state-sponsored doping, the act criminalises doping schemes intended to influence sports events and allows U.S. prosecutors to seek prison terms of up to 10 years and fines of up to $1 million.
Earlier this year Eric Lira became the first person charged under the Rodchenkov Act, with the Texan pleading guilty and sentenced to three months in prison for his involvement in providing banned performance-enhancing drugs to athletes before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
While Travis Tygart, head of the United States Anti-doping Agency (USADA) has praised the Rodchenkov Act as a game-changer in the fight against doping in sport, WADA has voiced concerns that it has destabilised the global anti-doping effort.
"The public reports about this investigation validate the concerns expressed broadly by the international community about the passage of the Rodchenkov Act, under which the United States purports to exercise extraterritorial criminal jurisdiction over participants in the global anti-doping system," said WADA.
An investigation could also spark friction between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and U.S. sports authorities with the 2028 Summer Olympics set for Los Angles and Salt Lake City poised to be confirmed as 2034 Winter Games hosts.
The IOC formed WADA in 1999 and is its biggest financial contributor, covering 50% of annual operating costs.
Images of members of soccer's world governing body FIFA being arrested on U.S. corruption charges as they exited a Zurich hotel in 2015 remain fresh and not a scene the IOC would like to see repeated with their members.
Canada's former IOC member Dick Pound, who helped set up WADA and was its first president, said the U.S. attempted similar tactics around the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic scandal trying to subpoena then president Juan Antonio Samaranch without success.
"Two years ago they (U.S.) were in a self-induced fury over the Russian situation and threatened to stop their contributions and now they're mad at China," Pound told Reuters. "I think the danger is the USA is turning itself into its own kind of a rogue state.
"I don't understand the end game USADA has in mind. Is it the dismantlement of the carefully constructed international system and going back to the wild west where everyone has their own rules and no oversight. It just doesn't make sense."