Team China’s Yufei Zhang competed in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Zhang won four medals in Tokyo, including two golds, and is now one of 23 Chinese swimmers implicated in a doping scandal.
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Team China’s Yufei Zhang competed in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Zhang won four medals in Tokyo, including two golds, and is now one of 23 Chinese swimmers implicated in a doping scandal.
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Less than a hundred days before the opening ceremony of the Paris Summer Games, a new doping controversy has erupted involving Chinese Olympic swimmers.
Critics say the scandal – stemming from positive drug tests in 2021 – suggests a “potential cover-up” and raises troubling questions about the integrity of the international testing regime intended to keep Olympic sport clean.
“It is upsetting to see that 23 Chinese swimmers have tested positive for a powerful performance-enhancing drug on the eve of the 2021 Olympic Games (in Tokyo),” said Travis Tygart, director of the U.S. anti-doping agency, known as the name USADA.
“It is even more devastating to learn that the World Anti-Doping Agency and the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency have, until now, secretly swept these positive results under the rug,” Tygart added in a statement.
The World Anti-Doping Agency, known as WADA, now acknowledges it was aware of positive doping tests in nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers ahead of the Tokyo Games.
In a statement, WADA officials said they accepted Chinese claims that the tests, involving a chemical called trimetazidine, commonly known as TMZ, found only small amounts of the drug and were the result of a accidental contamination.
“It was not possible for WADA scientists or investigators to conduct their field investigations in China given the extreme restrictions in place due to the COVID lockdown,” the organization said.
China’s Wang Shun celebrates after winning gold in the men’s 200m individual medley final at the Tokyo Olympics on July 30, 2021. His name is on a list of athletes who have reportedly tested positive for performance enhancing drug.
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China’s Wang Shun celebrates after winning gold in the men’s 200m individual medley final at the Tokyo Olympics on July 30, 2021. His name is on a list of athletes who have reportedly tested positive for performance enhancing drug.
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“WADA ultimately concluded that it was unable to refute the possibility that contamination was the cause of TMZ.”
It is unclear why sports officials in other countries were not informed of the tests or subsequent investigations. International rules also require a “provisional suspension” whenever athletes test positive. This did not happen with Chinese swimmers.
In a statement posted on social media, British swimmer James Guy, who won two gold medals in Tokyo and will compete again in Paris, slammed Chinese athletes who tested positive.
“Ban them all and never compete again” Guy wrote the.
The president of the American Olympic and Paralympic Committee, for his part, declared in a press release that the timing of these latest revelations was disastrous for the athletes.
“Recent doping allegations cast a shadow of uncertainty as we head into the (Paris) Olympic and Paralympic cycle, calling into question the very foundation of what fair competition represents,” said Sarah Hirshland, CEO of the USOPC.
In an interview with NPR, USADA’s Tygart questioned the plausibility of China’s explanation that TMZ’s positive tests were the result of accidental exposure.
“Maybe part of the rationale (for this cover-up) was ‘No one is going to believe this contamination theory, so we can’t follow the rules because it’s a crazy theory and no one would believe it ‘” Tygart said.
New Olympics, another high-profile doping scandal
Trimetazidine or TMZ is the same drug used by Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva ahead of the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, a violation that ultimately led Valieva to a four-year ban from international competition.
The case also involved a controversial delay in reporting Valieva’s positive doping test and threw the Beijing Games into turmoil.
Nine American skaters were belatedly awarded gold medals. Two years later, they are still waiting for the official awards ceremony.
Critics now say WADA and the Chinese should have immediately made the swimmers’ tests known to sports officials in other countries.
The behind-the-scenes investigation was first made public by The New York Times and German news agency ARD, which aired a German-language television documentary about the affair and published a full list of Chinese athletes who allegedly tested positive.
The list includes star swimmers Zhang Yufei and Wang Shun, who won gold medals in Tokyo. Both are expected to compete again at the Paris Olympics this summer.
In an interview with the German news agency DPA, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called for an investigation into the matter.
“If it were confirmed that Chinese swimmers were able to become Olympic champions in Tokyo despite previous evidence of doping, it would be a disaster for world sport,” Faeser said.
“This case is a slap in the face to all innocent and honest athletes.”
As Paris approaches, dismay among drug testers
China’s anti-doping agency, known as CHADA, responded over the weekend to growing allegations of wrongdoing.
In a statement released by China’s government news agency Xinhua, CHADA officials said their investigation found “extremely low” amounts of TMZ in Chinese swimmers.
“WADA accepted our conclusion after careful consideration,” the organization said.
The AMA, meanwhile, condemned its critics in a scathing statement threatening legal action, calling the accusations of wrongdoing “outrageous, completely false and defamatory.”
“At all times, WADA acted in good faith, in accordance with due process and following the advice of external counsel,” the organization said.
US Anti-Doping Agency’s Tygart hit back on social networkssaying it is “disappointing to see WADA resorting to threats and scare tactics when confronted with a blatant anti-doping rule violation.”
New scandal, old suspicions
The scandal reignites questions about international sport’s ability to confront countries accused of systematically using performance-enhancing drugs to gain unfair advantages at the Olympics and other major competitions.
The International Olympic Committee has been criticized for allowing Russian athletes to continue competing at the Winter and Summer Games, albeit in a neutral manner, without flying the Russian flag or playing the national anthem, despite evidence of doping systemic.
Also at the Tokyo Games, questions were raised about Russian swimmer Evgeny Rylov, who won gold in the men’s 200-meter backstroke.
Russian gold medalist Evgeny Rylov, wearing a mask, poses with his medal after the men’s 200m backstroke during the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games. His challengers questioned whether he competed with the aid of performance-enhancing drugs .
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Russian gold medalist Evgeny Rylov, wearing a mask, poses with his medal after the men’s 200m backstroke during the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games. His challengers questioned whether he competed with the aid of performance-enhancing drugs .
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“I don’t know if (the race) was 100 percent clean,” U.S. swimmer Ryan Murphy, a silver medalist, said at a subsequent 2021 news conference, “and it’s because of things that happened in the past.”
China also faces ongoing questions about whether its teams routinely use performance-enhancing drugs.
At the 2012 Summer Games in London, Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen, then 16, wiped out the competition in the final lap of the women’s 400m individual medley.
His final 50 meters was faster than American star Ryan Lochte’s final 50 meters in the men’s version of that same race, raising doubts about whether that performance could have been achieved without the aid of drugs.
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