Monday, December 2, 2024

WADA accepts Chinese swimmers tested positive to banned substance due to contaminated kitchen

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A documentary from German broadcaster ARD, plus reports from the New York Times and News Corp, have revealed 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive to the same banned substance seven months before the Tokyo Olympics.

While World Anti-Doping Agency and World Aquatics were informed at the time, the news wasn’t publicly released and the athletes weren’t punished.

So what actually happened, and why weren’t they found guilty of doping?

Claims of a cover-up

WADA president Witold Banka (centre) said if the agency had it’s time over, it would not change anything.(Getty Images: Luo Yuan/Xinhua, file photo)

The 23 athletes tested positive to a banned substance known as trimetazidine (TMZ).

It’s a drug used to treat heart disease but is considered performance enhancing as it can help with physical endurance.

Chinese swimmer Sun Yang served a three-month doping suspension in 2014 for taking TMZ, while teenage Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva received a four-year ban after she tested positive to the same substance at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

According to an investigation by the China Anti-Doping Agency, CHINADA, as detailed in ARD’s documentary, traces of the doping agent were found in the hotel kitchen where the team was staying.

The traces were found in the extractor fan, spice containers and the drain.

“That a doping pill ends up in whole or in part in a pot of soup, from there onto plates and then in the stomachs of athletes does indeed sound very contrived,” filmmaker Hajo Seppelt said.

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