President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance and other members of the U.S. government could be prevented from going to the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles if the World Anti-Doping Agency institutes a proposed new rule, the Associated Press reported on Friday.
The potential statute also might affect the FIFA World Cup that will be staged largely in the United States this summer.
WADA has long squabbled with the U.S. government, which hasn’t paid annual dues to the agency for years over a dispute over the organization’s effectiveness in keeping athletic competition drug-free.
The issue first arose under the administration of then-U.S. President Joe Biden and continues under the Trump administration, with government officials of both the Democratic and Republican parties siding against WADA.
WADA’s agenda for its meeting next Tuesday calls for steps to be taken against governments that aren’t up to date on dues payments, topped by a ban of officials such government representatives from sporting events, per AP. The measure reportedly doesn’t target the U.S. alone.
According to the report, the United States owes more than $7 million for the past two years alone.
Sara Carter, director of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), said, according to AP, “In spite of WADA’s increasing threats, we continue to stand firm in our demand for accountability and transparency from WADA to ensure fair competition in sport.”
In one high-profile case that rankled U.S. officials, Chinese swimmers failed drug tests ahead of the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo yet still were permitted to compete.
Due to the U.S. protests and failure to pay WADA dues, the country was removed from WADA’s executive committee.
The report indicated that the ban on government officials coming to events figures to be largely “symbolic.”
Rahul Gupta, a former WADA executive committee member and previous head of the ONDCP, told AP, “I have never heard of a $50 million-budget Swiss foundation being able to enforce a rule to, for example, prevent the United States president from going anywhere. … How are you going to enforce it? Are they going to post a red notice from Interpol? It’s ludicrous. It’s clear they have not thought this through.”
–Field Level Media
