Sawt Falasteen - WADA calls on US to stop 'dangerous' Enhanced Games

Speaking in Lausanne in an address to a meeting of summer Olympic officials, Banka said the inaugural edition of the Enhanced Games in Las Vegas -- where athletes will be free to use performance-enhancing drugs -- "must be stopped."

"We all must stand up and condemn those who put greed and ego before the well-being of athletes and the values of fair competition," Banka said.

"As the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles approach, we cannot allow what should be a celebration of honest sporting endeavor to be overshadowed by this cynical attempt to undermine clean sport.

"WADA is now urging the authorities in the US to seek ways to prevent the Enhanced Games from going ahead as planned. For the sake of athletes' health and the purity of sport, it must be stopped."

In separate remarks following the address, Banka urged US authorities to consider legal action to prevent the Enhanced Games from taking place.

"Every effort should be made by the authorities in the US to prevent this dangerous event from going ahead as planned," Banka said.

"This should be explored from the legal perspective. For example, I would question whether it is legal for licensed doctors to give these potent drugs to healthy athletes.

"It goes completely against the rules and values of their profession...I think there is a strong role to be played by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA)".

USADA has been a strident critic of WADA in recent years following controversy over the global doping watchdog's handling of positive drug tests from 23 Chinese swimmers in 2021.

Responding to Banka's remarks on Wednesday, USADA chief executive Travis Tygart accused the WADA president of "attempting to leverage this sideshow to distract from fixing WADA and to stoke anti-American rhetoric."

"As we have repeatedly said, for all of the obvious reasons, the Enhanced Games or any other open competition is a bad idea," Tygart said in comments emailed to AFP, urging Banka to accept an invitation to a US Senate hearing next week where the 2021 case involving Chinese swimmers is to be discussed.

The first Enhanced Games will be staged in Las Vegas in May 2026, with athletes participating in three sports -- athletics, swimming and weightlifting.

Athletes will be allowed to use drugs banned across international sport such as steroids and human growth hormones, with winners of each event receiving $250,000, and a bonus of $1 million for any athlete who breaks a world record.

D.Khalil--SF-PST