SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Kirsty Coventry and her World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) counterpart called for unity on Tuesday in the fight against performance-enhancing drugs, following a fracture with the United States.

“Too often we’ve seen energy spent on division, finger-pointing and competing agendas,” Coventry told WADA’s World Conference on Doping in Sport, being held this week in the South Korean city of Busan.

“It has been difficult to watch this divide within our community.”

Her comments came nearly 18 months after an internal investigation cleared WADA of pro-China bias.

The agency was rocked by a scandal involving 23 Chinese swimmers who were cleared of intentionally doping after testing positive for a banned heart drug in 2021.

Chinese investigators absolved the swimmers — some of whom went on to win Olympic gold in Tokyo that year — of wrongdoing, saying that the athletes had been exposed to the drug via a contaminated hotel kitchen.

WADA opted not to independently investigate the matter, sparking criticism, especially from the United States and its anti-doping organisation, USADA.

Following WADA’s decision, the US Government withdrew US$3.6 million in funding, resulting in the removal of US representatives from the body’s executive committee.

“There is only one fight that we should be fighting — and that is the fight against doping,” Coventry told the gathering in Busan.

“But instead, at times, we have been turning on each other. The only people who benefit from this disunity are the drugs cheaters.”

Taking a similar line, WADA President Witold Banka did not reference any one country by name but said that, “[S]ome voices have chosen confrontation over cooperation, speaking as if their nations or institutions stand above others, as if only they acted with integrity.

“To those who behave as though they come from ‘better’ systems, expecting the world to follow their personal crusades, we say respectfully but firmly: No.

“Anti-doping does not belong to one nation or one personality.”