In the run-up to the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, tensions between the US and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) are escalating as the US moves legislation to freeze its funding. The bill has already passed the Senate.
Only part of it is the WADA clauses, as it is the sweeping Financial Services and General Administration Act that is supposed to end the ongoing US lockout. He will be subject to a final vote in the House of Representatives on Tuesday and must then be formally signed into law by President Donald Trump.
The US is hosting this summer’s World Cup and the upcoming Summer and Winter Olympics – Los Angeles 2028 and Salt Lake City 2034 – and such a solution could have significant implications for the world of sport. The IOC has already threatened to withdraw the country from the 2034 Winter Olympics.
The US is asking WADA for an external audit and accountability
The bill includes language that makes annual U.S. contributions to WADA of nearly $4 million tied to the results of “independent” an audit designed to ensure that the organization “acts in accordance with its mission”, reports the German national television ARD in its material.
According to project at WADA should be audited “by external anti-doping experts and experienced independent auditors“. In addition, the anti-doping agency must provide a detailed breakdown of the potential use of US funds. However, the members of such an audit panel are currently not selected by the US, but by a process overseen by WADA’s 42-member Board of Trustees.
This is another escalation in the feud between the US administrations and WADA. Initially, under President Joe Biden, the US refused to pay its due annual contribution of $3.6 million for 2024. The annual amount requested by WADA from the US has already increased, reaching $3.96 million for 2026. The US is also the largest donor among member countries, together providing 50% of WADA’s total budget. The other half comes from the Olympic sports federations and the IOC.
Before ARD Mra WADA spokesman stressed that the Agency is already “regularly independently audited – financially and otherwise“. He pointed to other control measures, including the recent appointment of “an internal auditor who focuses on governance, risk management and internal control, including the assessment of compliance with internal policiesThe measures required by the US bill, however, go considerably further.
A risk to future Olympics
Since the start of Trump’s second term a year ago, the US has already withdrawn from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Paris Climate Agreement. Therefore, sports officials tend not to challenge the American president excessively. However, when it awarded the host of the Winter Games last year, the IOC included a special clause allowing it to remove Salt Lake City as host if the U.S. “undermine” or fail to “keep completely” authority of WADA. The IOC was then headed by Thomas Bach, and the new president, Kirsty Coventry, has not yet taken a clear position on the dispute.
When asked by ARD, the IOC has chosen not to make new threats against the US after recent events. A spokesperson for the Olympic Committee has stated that the question of “harmonized global anti-doping strategy” must be decided between WADA and the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). The IOC welcomes the US Olympic Committee’s willingness to mediate and expresses confidence that “that the matter will be resolved in due course between WADA and USADA“.
It all started with the scandal with the Chinese swimmers
The dispute between the two countries erupted in April 2024 after ARD revealed that WADA had not investigated doping allegations against 23 Chinese swimmers since 2021. This raised questions about WADA’s case management and overall priorities.
These concerns are not limited to the US. Anti-doping agencies from 18 countries, including Germany, called on WADA for reforms after the China case. Germany’s Bundestag also debated whether to end Germany’s €1.4 million annual contribution, but left it in place.
At the same time, WADA defines the allegations surrounding the Chinese swimmers as “politically motivated attacks“. And he even filed a defamation case against one of his fiercest critics, USADA, in a Swiss court, which he later withdrew. But it continues to investigate how information about doping cases in China was leaked. Even then, WADA announced that it would search for the individuals who filed the reports of irregularities that were leaked to the media.
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