Amid the excitement of being awarded the 2034 Winter Games nearly a year ago, Utahns found out there’d been a last-minute addition to the host contract signed with the International Olympic Committee.
The new termination clause allowed the IOC to take back the Winter Games if “the supreme authority of the World Anti Doping Agency in the fight against doping is not fully respected or if the application of the World Anti-Doping Code is hindered or undermined” by the United States.
The ongoing friction between the World Anti Doping Agency, known as WADA, and its U.S. counterpart that led to the new contract language was the subject of a hearing Tuesday by a subcommittee of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.
The hearing focused on a 2021 WADA decision to allow Chinese swimmers who’d tested positive for a banned substance to compete that was first reported by The New York Times in April 2024 and led to an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department.
It was that investigation, which included a subpoena to testify delivered to a Switzerland-based international swimming official by U.S. authorities, that sparked a call by sports officials around the world for assurances from Utah’s Olympic bidders ahead of the IOC’s July 24, 2024 vote.
Two Republican senators spoke out Tuesday about the resulting contract change, echoing comments previously made by members of Congress about the behind-the-scenes pressure put on Utah as well as U.S. Olympic officials.
‘Shocking’ and ‘disturbing’ demands on Utah’s bid
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said at the start of the hearing that the IOC, “likely in cooperation with WADA, took an unprecedented move to demand that Utah officials sign a contract to recognize ‘the supreme authority of the WADA’ in order to host the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.”
Cruz then called it “shocking” that WADA “appears to have made unfair demands of a United States city to stymie legitimate federal investigations into its role in the swimmer doping scandal.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., used the word “disturbing” to describe what she said was “WADA’s effort to use our own Olympic bid as leverage” in response to U.S. concerns about WADA’s handling of the Chinese swimmers situation.
“WADA and the IOC threatened our country’s bid to host the 2034 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City,” Blackburn said, referring to “reports of secretive contract arrangements and backroom deals between WADA, the IOC and parties connected to Salt Lake City’s bid.”
The story of how the contract changes came about was first reported by the Deseret News the same day the bid was awarded by the IOC in July 2024. Last December, The New York Times published its own story about the “dramatic power play” by Olympic officials.
Blackburn later asked the head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, Travis Tygart, “Why do you think WADA thought they could intimidate the U.S. and U.S. Olympic committee and the Salt Lake City officials? And why was there capitulation?”
Tygart responded there was the “perception the IOC leveraged the giving of the Olympic Games in exchange for us bowing down, as Sen. Cruz mentioned, to the supreme authority of WADA. Those shouldn’t be co-mingled whatsoever.”
Could Utah lose the 2034 Winter Games?
But Tygart went on to say at the hearing he has been assured by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee that “it’s meaningless. There was no quid pro quo in their mind.”
The leader of Utah’s bid and now the president of the 2034 Winter Games organizing committee, Fraser Bullock, told the Deseret News that the new contract language “imposed no additional obligations,” since the contract already required support for the World Anti Doping Code.
“We remain fully confident in hosting the 2034 Games,” Bullock said.
So does USOPC Chair Gene Sykes, who told reporters in a media call Thursday that he doesn’t expect there to be any issue “or any doubt about the opportunity for Utah to host the 2034 Games.”
What the USOPC says about the pressure on Utah’s bid
Sykes, elected to the IOC at the July 2024 meeting, played down the statements made by the senators about the contract change that came as a result of nearly a week of nonstop negotiations to ensure the bid would be awarded as anticipated on Utah’s Pioneer Day.
“We did not really feel any pressure at all,” Sykes said of the discussions. “We were asked to include language that was already included in the host city contract, which had already been agreed to.”
He said, too, that “the IOC has made assurances even since then that that language will be in every single host city contract from here on out. So there’s nothing exceptional or extraordinary about any of that.”
Sykes previously told the Deseret News the addition was a reminder to U.S. officials they “are signatories and participants in the world anti-doping system and to see us say that we take that with a great deal of respect and we treat it as something we are prepared to show our commitment to.”
The USOPC has taken the lead on repairing the relationship between WADA and its U.S. counterpart. Sykes said Thursday he “actually has more optimism” about WADA being seen as “professional and widely regarded as the arbiter of the world anti-doping code.”
“That’s what we’ve always wanted,” he said. “This is not the U.S. versus WADA. It’s definitely not that at all. I think it’s a matter of making sure that WADA is able to do it’s job well, to the satisfaction of athletes all around the world in all sports.”
Utah Sen. John Curtis spoke at the hearing about the success of Utah’s first Olympics, the 2002 Winter Games.
“Imagine our pride in hosting the 2034 Games. To us, building on that legacy that we had in 2002 is just really important,” the Republican senator said, adding that Utahns want the 2034 Games “to be the cleanest Olympics in the history of the Olympics.”