Australian swimming legend Grant Hackett calls out cover-up of Chinese doping scandal at Tokyo Games

Grant Hackett has hit out at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and China following a Chinese doping scandal at the Tokyo Olympics that could see Australian women promoted to silver medals.

It was revealed on Saturday that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive for a banned substance ahead of the Olympics but were nonetheless allowed to compete.

The tests were all collected in January 2021, ahead of the Tokyo Games where the swimming team won three gold medals and six overall.

The 23 positive results were for trimetazidine, a drug normally used to prevent attacks of angina – and the same substance that saw teenage figure skater Kamila Valieva banned for four years.

Australians could move from bronze to silver for the women’s 4x200m relay at the 2021 Olympics (photo)

In response, WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency, said it accepted the Chinese authorities’ decision to allow the swimmers, saying their food had been contaminated.

The news means Ariarne Titmus, Mollie O’Callaghan, Leah Neale and Madi Wilson, who won bronze medals in the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay, could be promoted to silver.

“You can’t come out and obviously immediately tarnish everyone by calling him a drug cheat, but it’s very suspicious given the circumstances and the fact that it hasn’t been disclosed and transparent, that’s what makes it more suspicious than anything else,” Hackett told the Herald. Sun.

“It’s like there’s nothing to hide, why don’t we disclose that a process was undertaken, that there were people who tested positive but there was contamination so there was nothing to see here and there were follow up tests maybe around this and everything that needs to be discussed around this situation like this should have been revealed (at that time). .

“The fact that we’re sitting here three years later and this is only coming out through the wrong channels, not the official channels, makes me very disturbed.”

Australian swimmer Shayna Jack was banned from competition for testing positive for a banned substance in 2019, which was later found to be due to substance contamination.

Unlike the Chinese swimmers, Jack missed the Games and had to fight to save his tattered career.

Hackett says he also feels compassion for the Chinese athletes involved – who could also be victims.

Ariarne Titmus, Emma McKeon, Madi Wilson and Leah Neale pose with their bronze medals

“I actually empathize with several athletes in this situation,” Hackett said.

“If no one has done anything wrong but there hasn’t been a transparent process, those people are going to get tarnished with that brush.

“So if there were people doing bad things and taking performance-enhancing supplements or banned supplements, then what about the athletes sitting with the wrong medals around their necks.”

“The third layer is people like Shayna or other people who have had problems with contaminated samples or, you know, have had a difficult time with these issues, but have been handed a set of cards different from someone else’s.

“This lack of consistency and what you basically call a double standard is what really makes you uncomfortable.”