The American newspaper "New York Times" revealed today, Saturday, that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for banned substances before the Tokyo 2021 Olympics. However, they were allowed to compete after global governing bodies secretly accepted China's findings that they had ingested the substance unknowingly. Among those identified, nearly half of the swimming team sent by China to Japan won multiple medals, including gold, according to the report. Many of these athletes are expected to participate again in the upcoming Paris Olympics this summer.
The newspaper reported that their tests came back positive for a heart medication that can enhance performance, during a local competition in late 2020 and early 2021. However, Chinese anti-doping authorities deemed that the athletes had unknowingly consumed the substance from contaminated food, and there was no justification for taking action against them.
The "New York Times" confirmed that it reviewed confidential documents and emails, including a report prepared by the Chinese anti-doping agency and submitted to its global counterpart (WADA). It noted that the global anti-doping agency and the International Aquatics Federation, then known as FINA, decided not to act due to "the lack of any reliable evidence" to challenge the Chinese account of events.
In turn, Olivier Rabin, the director of science and medicine at WADA, stated, "Ultimately, we concluded that there was no concrete basis to contest the confirmed contamination." The International Aquatics Federation confirmed to the newspaper that the cases were reviewed by a doping monitoring committee and subjected to independent expert scrutiny, adding, "We are confident that these analytical results were dealt with seriously and professionally, in accordance with all applicable anti-doping regulations, including the World Anti-Doping Code."
However, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency stated that "the swimmers should have been banned and their identities publicly disclosed," and described the inaction of WADA as "a devastating blow to clean athletes."
