Warning signs blinking over swimmers’ anger at alleged Chinese doping scandal ahead of Olympics

By Don Riddell, CNN

(CNN) — The director of an international sports advocacy group has a warning for organizers of the Olympic Games ahead of next week’s competitions in the pool: The doping scandal that plagued the sport in recent months isn’t going away.

Ever since the New York Times reported in April that 23 Chinese swimmers had all tested positive for the same banned substance ahead of the Tokyo Olympics and were still allowed to compete at the games in 2021, resentment and frustration has been simmering in the water. Eleven of those Chinese swimmers are due to compete again in Paris, and many of their rivals are preparing to go against them with a sense of bitter resignation.

Rob Koehler, director of international sports advocacy group Global Athlete, told CNN that they are already anticipating the worst.

“If any of those 11 Chinese swimmers hit a podium,” he said, “they will absolutely lose it.”

The Chinese swimmers tested positive for the banned performance enhancing drug Trimetazidine at a national meet several months before the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, but China’s Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) said that the concentration was “extremely low.” CHINADA decided that the swimmers were not responsible for the results because the drug had been accidentally ingested via some contaminated food.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was notified of the test results a month before the games in 2021 and accepted CHINADA’s conclusion, because, according to WADA’s President Witold Bańka, they found “no credible way to disprove the contamination theory that was accepted by CHINADA.”

CNN has reached out to CHINADA for comment on this story.

In a statement, WADA stood by its previous decision-making and said an independent prosecutor had confirmed that its conclusions were reasonable.

“WADA will consider with external legal counsel what measures can be taken against those who continue to make untrue and defamatory allegations. These allegations have been extremely damaging to WADA’s reputation and to the confidence and trust that athletes and other stakeholders have in the Agency and in the global anti-doping system,” the statement read.

Three years after the failed drug tests and three months after they became known to the rest of the swimming community, the scandal only continues to grow. On July 9, the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) released a scathing statement about the handling of the affair, asking pointed questions about how on earth the drug had been present in the kitchen where the swimmers’ food was being prepared, and why WADA so readily accepted the Chinese explanation.

USADA CEO Travis Tygart concluded by saying, “From the beginning, our goal has been uncovering the truth and the facts of this situation on behalf of clean athletes. Until WADA leadership shares that goal and stops spewing vitriol at any voice of dissent, there will be no trust in the global anti-doping system. WADA’s credibility is crumbling before the world’s eyes.”

The case is now being investigated by the US Justice Department, which can criminally prosecute those who help athletes dope at international competitions, even if they didn’t happen in the United States.

Watching from the sidelines is the retired American swimmer Michal Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time.

Seven years ago, the winner of 23 gold medals testified to Congress about his frustration of the handling of the widespread Russian doping scandal, and he was back in Congress in June to note that nothing has changed.

“Sitting here once again, it is clear to me that any attempts of reform at WADA have fallen short,” he said. “There are still deeply rooted, systemic problems that prove detrimental to the integrity of international sports and athletes’ right to fair competition.”

Another American swimmer, Allison Schmitt, also testified. She swum in the 800-meter freestyle relay, her team finishing a close second to the Chinese.

“We raced hard. We trained hard,” she said, “We followed every protocol. We accepted our defeat with grace. Many of us will be haunted by this podium finish that may have been impacted by doping.”

The swimmers heading to Paris feel that they can no longer count on the authorities to protect the integrity of the sport and they are starting to take matters into their own hands.

In a meeting with a group of swimmers and their coaches in the run-up to the Games, Koehler described the mood as concerned, confused and angry.

He said athletes feel as though World Aquatics and the World Anti-Doping Agency have failed them and that nobody outside of the sport is paying attention. While none of those swimmers want to publicly comment on the situation ahead of the Games, Koehler believes that they will publicly protest if any one of the 11 Chinese athletes win a medal.

Given that the International Olympic Committee strictly prohibits any kind of dissent on the podium, it’s unclear what such a protest in an Olympic event would look like. World Aquatics is even more restrictive of the right to protest after Australia’s Mack Horton refused to share the podium with China’s Sun Yang at the World Championships in 2019.

On behalf of those athletes, Global Athlete says it will publish the names of the tainted Chinese swimmers on the eve of the Games and again before every impacted event, stating that both they and the international aquatics community have been failed by the authorities.

“CHINADA never notified the athletes of a positive test, and they basically swept it all under,” Koehler explained. “They were never provisionally suspended; they were never given a chance to explain. Basically, the Secret Service in China did their own thing, which is obviously suspect. World Aquatics and the World Anti-Doping Agency are to blame for not upholding the rules.”

Koehler believes that either the Chinese were the unknowing victims of a state-sponsored doping scheme, or that they were involved in an “overt scheme involving a backroom deal to protect the athletes of a powerful nation.”

In any case, he says, it’s imperative that the names of those swimmers are known: “They are attending the Games, where the cloud of suspicion remains.”

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