The International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded the hosting rights for the 2036 Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City, Utah in July 2024. President Thomas Bach visited the future sites in September in the host city to look at the work in progress, strengthening their bond with the hosting committee.
Now a close examination carried out by The New York Times, claims that the organizers of the Salt Lake bid are caught in political turmoil, with the United States’ federal agents carrying out a complex investigation into whether anti-doping authorities covered up positive tests for elite Chinese swimmers, setting off a power play to kill the inquiry.
Brent Nowicki, the Chief Executive of World Aquatics, was tracked by the federal agents in July as a key witness at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport while he was returning after attending US swimming trials in the Indianapolis.
He was handed a grand jury subpoena to testify into whether global sports authorities covered up the Chinese swimmers positive test for consuming a banned performance-enhancing drug.
Approaching Nowicki escalated into a broader confrontation over the power to police global sports, with consequences extending to who is allowed to host an Olympic Games, the report further claims.
Soon there was pressure from the IOC and World Anti-Doping Agency to shut down the investigation. The hosting rights for the 2034 Winter Olympics and the elevation of a top brass official, Gene Sykes, to the IOC was at stake.
Skyes was also pressured to help end the federal inquiries as a condition for receiving the bid. Meanwhile, Spencer J. Cox, the Governor of Utah, pledged to help the Olympic officials.
The IOC, then, awarded the hosting right to Utah. However, on its part, the governing body of Olympics has inserted a ‘cancellation clause’ into the hosting contract.
The doping controversy first came to light in April when reports claimed that nearly two dozen of Chinese swimmers tested positive in 2021 before being secretly cleared of doping by Chinese authorities and, later, by WADA.
The FBI and United States Department of Justice is investigating into the matter.