A Doping Feud Almost Cost Salt Lake City the Olympics. It Still Might.
A Justice Department investigation into whether antidoping authorities covered up positive tests for elite Chinese swimmers set off a power play to kill the inquiry.
Michael S. Schmidt and Tariq Panja are investigative reporters who have spent much of the past year covering the system that is supposed to guard against doping in Olympic sports.
In late June, federal agents working on a complex investigation were secretly positioned at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport, tracking a potentially key witness — a top international swimming official involved in the Olympics.
Before he could board, the agents presented a startled Mr. Nowicki with a grand jury subpoena, demanding that he testify in a federal investigation into whether global sports authorities covered up positive tests by elite Chinese swimmers for a banned performance-enhancing drug.
Even before the encounter, the Chinese positive tests had already become an Olympics controversy. But approaching Mr. Nowicki, only weeks before the start of the Summer Games in Paris, escalated the situation into a broader confrontation over the power to police global sports, with consequences possibly extending to who is allowed to host an Olympic Games.
