It’s a bomb that risks causing a lot of damage in swimming pools and beyond. According to German channel ARD, 23 of the top Chinese swimmers tested positive before the Tokyo Olympics without ultimately being concerned by the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency, and some were able to participate in the Olympics and win titles and medals.
In a video report to be broadcast over the weekend, ARD therefore explains that it has received documents, renamed “China files”, from an investigation report by the Chinese National Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) regarding a competition in January 2021 in Shijiazhuang.
Among these swimmers will be the Olympic champion in the 200m butterfly Zhang Yufei, Wang Shun, Olympic champion in the 200m medley and second this season in the world results in the distance behind the Frenchman Léon Marchand or even the breaststroker Qin Haiyang, world champion 50, 100 and 200m breast last year, while 13 of the 23 positive athletes took part in the Tokyo Olympics where China won six medals.
Still according to ARD, China justified these doping cases in its report by indicating the contamination of the food prepared for all the athletes concerned in the kitchen of the athletes’ hotel in Shijiazhuang. The report also states that investigators inspected the kitchen two months later and found traces of trimetazidine in the extractor hood, on spice containers and in the drain.
ARD, who worked in collaboration on this case with New York Times, also indicates that China would have transferred this information in the ADAMS software (WADA software that allows all controls carried out in the world and also all the results) while the AMA notified with a letter. However, the athletes were not temporarily suspended as should be the case for this substance, classified as unspecified by WADA and where the suspension is in the text for 4 years.
A complaint that is not justified under the AMA
When contacted, WADA indicated in a press release that it had been made aware in June 2021 that several abnormal results from Chinese swimmers had returned and that it was linked to contamination. “WADA ultimately concluded that it was unable to refute the possibility that contamination was the cause of the positive trimetazidine controls and that this was consistent with analytical data in the dossier. »
While adding: “WADA also concluded that the athletes would be deemed to have committed no wrongdoing or negligence. As such, and based on the advice of external advisers, WADA considered that an appeal was not warranted. »
“If this is true, it looks like a cover-up at the highest levels in the world” Travis Tygart, head of the US Anti-Doping Agency, says to ARD. Three months before the Paris Olympics, the bomb is really huge.
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