Positive samples No penalties after positive samples for 23 Chinese swimmers
At the Tokyo Olympics, the 30-member Chinese team won six medals, including three golds. photo
© Michael Kappeler/dpa
The allegations are serious. At the beginning of 2021, positive doping samples were found in 23 swimmers from China – there was no punishment. Wada knows why.
23 top Chinese swimmers remained unpunished despite positive doping tests. According to media reports, the World Anti-Doping Agency Wada refrained from conducting its own investigation into the matter and trusted the Chinese authorities’ account, which cited contaminated meals in an athletes’ hotel as the cause of the positive tests at the beginning of 2021.
In a statement, Wada called the reports “misleading and possibly defamatory” and said it would take legal action if necessary. However, the World Anti-Doping Agency confirmed the facts of the 23 positive samples. But after a “review process lasting several weeks,” the swimmers could not be blamed for any fault or negligence. At the Olympics in Tokyo in July/August 2021, the 30-member Chinese team won six medals, including three gold.
The Chinese anti-doping agency Chinada informed them in June 2021 that the swimmers had tested positive for the banned heart drug trimetazidine (TMZ) after they were accidentally exposed to the substance through contamination. However, due to Corona restrictions at the time, WADA was not able to carry out the investigations on site in China. After testing remotely, the anti-doping organization found itself unable to refute the China theory. “We even obtained new information on the pharmacokinetics and metabolism of TMZ from the manufacturer and tested several hypotheses,” explained Wada Science and Medicine Director Olivier Rabin.
TZM has been on the banned list since 2014
Doping strategies with low doses of TMZ were also tried out to assess their plausibility. “Ultimately, we concluded that there was no concrete basis to challenge the alleged contamination,” Rabin said in the Wada statement. TMZ helps to improve the oxygen supply to the heart muscle and supports heart function – thus increasing endurance. The so-called metabolism modulator has been on WADA’s banned list since 2014.
Before the doping scandal involving Russian figure skater Kamila Valiyeva at the Winter Olympics in Beijing 2022, the best-known case involving trimetazidine was that of China’s swimming star Sun Yang in May 2014 – shortly after the WADA ban – with a three-month ban. Due to other doping offences, the three-time Olympic champion has now been banned for four years retroactively from 2020.
According to research by the ARD doping editorial team and the “New York Times”, the swimmers tested positive at a national competition in China at the beginning of 2021. The “Daily Telegraph” from Australia also reported. The media reports state that food was cooked for all the affected athletes in a hotel kitchen in Shijiazhuang. The report submitted by China shows that more than two months later, investigators inspected the kitchen and found traces of trimetazidine in the extractor hood, on spice containers and in the drain.
dpa
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