Text size
Chinese swimmers are heading to the Paris Olympics under tight scrutiny, with 11 team members among a group that tested positive for a banned substance ahead of the Tokyo Games.
Swimming is always one of the most anticipated events and, along with the United States and Australia, China is expected to be among the medallists when the Games begin on July 26.
However, any success will be immediately called into question, following revelations in April that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine (TMZ) during a domestic competition in late 2020 and early 2021.
They were allowed to compete in Tokyo a few months later after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accepted the Chinese authorities’ conclusion that the negative results had been caused by contaminated food at a team hotel.
Eleven of the 23 participants, including the reigning Olympic and world champions, will be present in the French capital, representing a third of the Chinese swimming team.
The manner in which news of the positive tests was revealed – through the media and only years later – prompted accusations from the US anti-doping body of a “potential cover-up”, which WADA and China have vigorously denied.
TMZ is a prescription heart drug, but it is banned for athletes because it can enhance performance. The swimmers had “very low levels” of the drug, WADA said.
TMZ was at the heart of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics doping scandal involving Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva. She was banned for four years in January.
The New York Times, which, in collaboration with German broadcaster ARD, was first to report the 23 positive tests, later said in June that three of them had also tested positive for another banned substance years earlier.
Chinese authorities said the three men had inadvertently ingested the substance through contaminated meat, and no disciplinary action was taken.
WADA said the three men had clenbuterol levels “between six and fifty times lower” than the minimum reporting level currently used by the agency.
After the initial outcry in April, WADA – which has come under heavy criticism in some quarters – ordered an independent review of its handling of the 23’s case.
“It’s a huge waste, largely attributable to WADA itself,” April Henning, an anti-doping expert at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, told AFP.
The scandal not only affects WADA but also other athletes and governing bodies, as well as “the Chinese swimmers in this case who will now forever be labeled as dopers even if there really was a contamination problem,” Henning said.
“There is no winner here.”
China has consistently denied any intention to cheat and has denounced “fake news.”
Some Chinese media outlets have portrayed the story as a U.S.-led plot to discredit the country and its team.
Zhang Yufei was one of the swimmers who, according to the New York Times and ARD, were among the 23.
The 26-year-old, one of China’s biggest stars, won two gold medals in Tokyo and the woman nicknamed the “Butterfly Queen” will be in contention for medals again in Paris.
She told AFP in May that her goal for the Olympics was to “surpass my past self.”
In written responses to questions posed before the positive tests were revealed, Zhang said his 200m butterfly victory in Tokyo and the medal ceremony that followed were “the most precious moments of my life.”
AFP has attempted to contact Zhang and the Chinese Swimming Association several times since the controversy erupted, but neither responded to questions posed to them.
China’s 31-member swimming team also has several other athletes who will be serious medal contenders in Paris but have questions hanging over them.
Among the 23 athletes who will participate in Paris is also Wang Shun, gold medalist in the 200m medley in Tokyo.
There is also Qin Haiyang, multiple world breaststroke champion and 200m record holder.
China’s best-known swimmer, three-time Olympic gold medallist Sun Yang, will not be in Paris: he has just returned from a suspension for an anti-doping rule violation, the second of his career.