Squabble grows as US government holds back 2024 funding from world anti-doping watchdog WADA WSOC TV [Video]

The U.S. government did not pay the more than $3.6 million due to the World Anti-Doping Agency in 2024, making good on a long-running threat anchored in unhappiness with the global watchdog’s handling of cases involving Chinese swimmers and others.

Those funds, normally distributed by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, represent about 6% of WADA’s annual budget.

WADA statutes say representatives of countries that don’t pay are not eligible to sit on the agency’s top decision-making panels. U.S. drug czar Rahul Gupta is listed as a member of the WADA executive committee.

Gupta’s office did not immediately respond to requests from The Associated Press for comment.

When Gupta directed his office to send the balance of a yearly contribution in 2022, he did so with reservations, along with a letter saying the U.S. absence at the time from key policymaking positions was “a sorry state of affairs.”

Half of WADA’s budget is covered by …