Revealing that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for banned substances 7 months before the Tokyo Olympics but was secretly cleared and allowed to continue competing has exposed a deep and sometimes bitter personal rift within the sport, and prompted fresh criticism of the global body that oversees drug testing.
New York Times investigation discovered previously unreported details about the 2021 episode in which a Chinese swimming team, comprising nearly half of the team China sent to the Tokyo Olympics, had results tested positive for a banned prescription cardiovascular drug that could help athletes increase endurance and reduce recovery time.
Within hours, the revelation of a case that had been secret for more than three years drew strong reactions from athletes, coaches and others in the fight to keep drugs from entering the sport. elite sports.
A silver medal-winning American Olympian from Tokyo said she felt her team was “cheated” in a race that China won. The British won the gold medal Call for a lifetime ban for participating swimmers. German Sports Minister a documentary about the case aired on Sunday, request an investigation. And the simmering feud between officials at the World Anti-Doping Agency, the global regulator known as WADA, and their US counterparts has exploded in a series of vitriolic statements and feuds. legal threats.
“Whenever there is a situation where positive tests are not clearly identified and go through a process and proper protocol, that will allow doubt to creep into the minds of athletes who are competing cleanly.” The US women's team at the Tokyo Olympics. “When they compete in competitions, you can't help but think, 'Am I competing in a clean event?'”
The fallout occurred less than 100 days before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. That has created unpleasant headlines for both the sport as well as for the Olympics itself, which depends on global anti-doping regulators to ensure fairness and integrity of medals. awarded medals – this can confirm many years of training, determine the athlete's career and bring pride to an athlete. Nation.
China's anti-doping agency, known as Chinada, acknowledged the positive test results in response to questions last week but said the swimmers had accidentally ingested a banned substance. the amount was very small and no action was taken to deal with them. WADA, which said it had no “credible evidence” to challenge China's version of events, said it had refused to impose suspensions, disqualifications or even issue any notices. publicly that they have tested positive.
In many ways, the fight for China's positives is a fight about process. In all but the rarest of cases, any athlete who tests positive for a banned drug as potent as the one in question, trimetazidine, is subject to at least a suspension temporarily while the investigation takes place. There is no evidence that this happened in the case of the Chinese athlete.
WADA and Chinada strongly dispute any assertion that they covered up the positive tests, saying they followed all applicable rules in investigating them. The director of WADA's intelligence and investigations unit, Günter Younger, said they had “diligently investigated every lead and line of inquiry in this matter”.
“The data in our possession clearly shows that there was no attempt to conceal the positive test results as they were reported by the Chinese authorities in the usual way,” he said.
However, for those personally affected, this revelation is much more personal.
Times Identify the year of the event at the Tokyo Olympics, in which Chinese swimmers who tested positive for banned substances won medals, including three gold medals.
Paige Madden, a member of the US 4×200 freestyle relay team that finished second behind China with a time faster than the previous world record, said in a text message to The New York Times that she hopes the doping case is handled. will be done better. was investigated and consideration was given to reallocating the medals.
“We have to applaud China's efforts that day,” she said of being beaten by a faster team. “However, today I feel like Team USA was cheated. We didn't get to celebrate our world record and we didn't get to have the moment as a team standing on the podium to watch the flag and sing the national anthem.”
In X posts, British Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty, a three-time gold medalist, be censured the uneven application of a system known as strict liability, the foundation of international doping rules, in which athletes are considered responsible for any banned substances found in their body, regardless of how it entered their body, making the bar for avoiding consequences extremely high. Peaty's Olympic teammate, James Guy, who won two gold medals from Tokyo, went further, writing: “Ban everyone and never compete again.”
However, the fiercer battle is taking place among the world's leading anti-doping officials.
Late Saturday, WADA threatened legal action against the chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, Travis T. Tygart, in an unusually personal press release accused him of “undermining WADA's work to protect clean sport around the world.”
Mr. Tygart, who has publicly criticized the way the case was handled in China, quickly responded. “It is disappointing to see WADA resort to intimidation and scare tactics in the face of such blatant violations of anti-doping regulatory rules,” he said. “When you blow their rhetoric away, the facts remain as reported: WADA failed to temporarily suspend athletes, eliminate qualifying results and publicly reveal the positives. These are serious failures.”
The back-and-forth has brought the longstanding feud between world anti-doping officials and their American counterparts into public view. In an interview in March, WADA general director Olivier Niggli previously expressed dissatisfaction with the US anti-doping agency and Mr. Tygart.
“Everything we did was criticized by them,” Mr. Niggli said.
WADA speak it has referred Mr. Tygart's most recent comments to its legal department. But WADA And Chinese Anti-Doping Agency also threatened legal action against news media outlets that reported information they deemed “misleading.”
However, it remains unclear what can or will happen next. WADA is handling the positive test results of Chinese swimmers. World Aquatics, the organization that governs international swimming, told The Times it believes the positive tests were handled “diligently and professionally, and in compliance with all regulations current anti-doping”.
And on Sunday, China's best swimmers competed on the third day of the national Olympic competition. Several swimmers identified as having tested positive in 2021 will be front and center again, including Zhang Yufei, who won four Olympic medals at the Tokyo Games, including two gold medals.
