The detention of the World Aquatics chief executive by the FBI five weeks ago under the draconian powers of a controversial US act, and the subsequent response of the International Olympic Committee to protect its sports officials and WADA, threatens the future of the Olympic movement.
Australia’s John Coates, the IOC first vice president, has been a pivotal figure in this recent power play, one which threatens to disrupt the Los Angeles Olympics – particularly if Donald Trump is elected as US president – as well as potentially leading to the cancellation of the 2034 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
At issue is the US’s Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act, which grants the US extraterritorial powers over sporting events involving American athletes. (It is named after the Russian whistleblower who fled to the US after the Sochi Winter Olympics and provided evidence of state-sponsored doping by the Russians, including swapping dirty samples for clean ones).
The Act effectively allows the US to detain anyone entering or leaving the US if there is any suggestion they have been involved with undermining anti-doping measures. It was recently used by the FBI to detain Brent Nowicki, the CEO of World Aquatics and a former executive with the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport, as he left a US airport.
Nowicki was held by........