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Each country is in charge of policing its own athletes….

Critics say this process gives too much leeway to countries — especially #authoritarian ones, where the govt has a hand in everything — in holding their own athletes accountable.

To make sure that countries are not skirting the rules, there’s a backstop: the World #AntiDoping Agency, known as #WADA. It’s supposed to step in when countries fail to properly police their athletes. It aims to keep doping athletes off the field.

…There are times, though, when the system doesn’t work. 12 members of the Chinese #swimming team at the #Paris Games have had positive drug tests in recent yrs. None of them have ever been disciplined. The Chinese #antidoping authorities — w/the help of their country’s #security services [#MSS] — concluded the swimmers were all unwitting victims of contamination from food.

In 1 of the cases, Chinese ofcls claimed that traces of a prescription heart medication had been found in the kitchen of a hotel where swimmers had been staying. In another, they claimed that 2 swimmers’ positive tests were triggered by hamburgers they ate at a restaurant in Beijing.

Among the many problems w/how these positive tests were handled, #antidoping experts & authorities say, is that in all the cases, the Chinese were unable to prove how the drugs got into the food.

#WADA reviewed how the Chinese handled the cases. But instead of stepping in…WADA declined to take action, paving the way for the athletes to keep competing.

When #KatieLedecky, the American #swimming great, was asked whether she trusted that the competition in #Paris was fair, her response was not enthusiastic. “We’re going to race whoever’s in the lanes next to us, & we’re not the ones paid to do the testing. So we hope that the people that are, follow their own rules…”