Olympic Committee president visits Salt Lake City hoping to ease anti-doping worries before Winter Games

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — In his first visit back to Utah since awarding Salt Lake City the 2034 Winter Games, the International Olympic Committee president sought to ease worries that the city could lose its second Olympics if organizers don’t fulfill an agreement to play peacemaker between anti-doping authorities.Thomas Bach on Saturday downplayed the gravity of a termination clause the IOC inserted into Salt Lake City’s host contract in July that threatens to pull the 2034 Games if the U.S.government does not respect “the supreme authority” of the World Anti-Doping Agency.Olympic officials also extracted assurances from Utah politicians and U.S.

Olympic leaders that they would urge the federal government to back down from an investigation into a suspected doping coverup.Utah bid leaders, already in Paris for the signing ceremony, hastily agreed to the IOC’s conditions to avoid delaying the much anticipated announcement.Bach characterized the contract language Saturday as a demonstration of the IOC’s confidence that the U.S.Anti-Doping Agency will fall in line with WADA.

He implied that WADA, not the Olympic committee, would be responsible in the unlikely occasion that Salt Lake City loses the Winter Games.“This clause is the advice to our friends in Salt Lake that a third party could make a decision which could have an impact on our partnership,” Bach said.Tensions have grown between WADA and its American counterpart as the U.S.government has given itself greater authority to crack down on doping schemes at international events that involve American athletes.

U.S.officials have used that power to investigate WADA itself after the global regulator declined to penalize nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.With its contract curveball, the IOC attempted to use its little leverage to ensure that WADA would be the lead authority on doping cases in Olympic sports...