Even though calls for a truce have intensified in recent days and even the International Olympic Committee partly intervened two weeks ago when it awarded the 2034 Winter Games to the US bid of Salt Lake City “under conditions”, tensions remain high: since then, an Australian coach has questioned the legitimacy of a Chinese swimmer’s world record in the French capital, Olympic icon Michael Phelps has advocated for “lifetime bans” for cheaters and even a German politician has called for the resignation of WADA’s president, Witold Banka because “he is not the right person” to lead the fight against doping.

The tug-of-war has not ceased ever since the Chinese swimmers trimetazidine scandal was uncovered back in April between The New York Times and German broadcaster ARD, leading to global outrage; especially from the United States Anti-Doping Agency, athlete-led pressure groups and even the US Congress, as the suspected dopers from the Asian country were cleared while alleging food contamination and allowed to compete and win Olympic medals.

USADA and its outspoken boss, Travis Tygart, ripped the global watchdog, called the mishandling of the positive tests “an attempted cover up” and demanded “urgent reforms” within the agency, which it deemed unfit to further police world sport, only leading to an increased back-and-forth, with the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency also joining the fray.

Now WADA has counter-attacked with its own accusations and alleges that its US counterpart broke the global code by permitting caught cheaters to keep competing without prosecution in exchange for information on other possible dopers. This doubles down on previous allegations by the European-based agency that Tygart’s outfit was itself failing to monitor its own backyard and instead centred its efforts on attacking WADA because of geopolitical reasons.

"WADA is now aware of at least three cases where athletes who had committed serious anti-doping rule violations were allowed to continue to compete for years while they acted as undercover agents for USADA, without it notifying WADA and without there being any provision allowing such a practice under the (global) code or USADA's own rules," WADA said in a statement in response to an article by Reuters, where the British agency revealed the undercover practices by the US-based agency.

“This USADA scheme threatened the integrity of sporting competition, which the Code seeks to protect. By operating it, USADA was in clear breach of the rules. Contrary to the claims made by USADA, WADA did not sign off on this practice of permitting drug cheats to compete for years on the promise that they would try to obtain incriminating evidence against others.”, the statement read.

Not surprisingly, CHINADA jumped at the bit to again claim a biased treatment against its athletes, accuse the US of “systemic' abuses” and called for more tests on Americans while both countries lead the medals table in Paris.

Following Reuters’ reporting, the Asians threw out their own statement on Thursday, saying that "there is reason to suspect that there is a systemic doping problem in track and field in the United States" and pointing to the case of American sprinter Erriyon Knighton, who tested positive for a banned substance in March but was cleared to compete in Paris after an independent arbitrator ruled that the result likely came from contaminated meat. "USADA has shown a typical double standard by trying its best to clear American athletes on one hand, but on the other hand accusing CHINADA and WADA of 'covering up the truth'," CHINADA argued.

“Contamination” was also alleged by Chinese authorities in the 23 positives regarding its swimmers before the Tokyo 2020 Games; now they are asking why USADA had seemingly not uncovered more positive tests for the substance -- a steroid widely used in livestock -- among American athletes or warned them about the risk of contamination. In its statement, CHINADA lamented the "deep-rooted stains in... US athletics and USADA's repeated disregard for procedures and standards" yet failed to provide evidence of any wrongdoing.

As for WADA’s claims regarding athletes operating as undercover agents, USADA also kept mum about specifics on how the reliance on informants had helped local authorities pursue and prosecute cheaters. "It's an effective way to get at these bigger, systemic problems," Tygart told Reuters. "If you've got agents or others who are preying on athletes and trafficking … I think it's totally appropriate."

WADA disagreed. “The suggestion that the code can be used to justify a failure to prosecute a case for years while doped athletes are sent back into the field as undercover informants to compete against clean athletes is obviously wrong," the agency insisted, citing that cases were "never published, results never disqualified, prize money never returned, and no suspension ever served.”

While the IOC again deflected the issue, USADA reiterated that it had informed the global policing body of the cases before 2021 and called WADA’s statement "a smear" in response to recent criticism while stating that they will refrain from using the tactic unless the global agency gives its clearance.

Back in Paris, where IOC president Thomas Bach had previously warned Salt Lake City 2034 organisers that the awarded Winter Games could be pulled from under the rug if the US criticism of WADA didn’t simmer down, officials kept a low profile. “Not much to add to this. We continue to work with our stakeholders to make sure we have good and robust world anti-doping systems,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams repeated days after expressing “full support” for WADA.

In the not-so-cold war of press releases and cries to the media, CHINADA had stated back in June that it would "never" agree to a US demand to release details of its investigation into the 23 swimmers, 11 of which competed in the 2024 Games, claiming 12 medals -- two gold, three silver and seven bronze.

The US tops the overall Olympics medals table with 27 golds, just ahead of China with 25.