World Aquatics says Chinese swimmers will be drug tested ‘no less than eight times’ ahead of Paris Olympics

Chinese swimmers headed to the Paris Olympics will have to have faced at least eight drug tests this year, World Aquatics says.

The Chinese swim team in Paris is set to feature 11 athletes who tested positive for a banned heart medication in 2021, six months before the Tokyo Olympics. 

The athletes avoided suspension and won three gold medals.

A Chinese state-backed investigation in June 2021 blamed mass contamination by food in a hotel kitchen, though without evidence to prove it. 

The case was not publicly revealed until reporting three months ago by the New York Times and German broadcaster ARD.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has been widely criticised — and targeted by a United States federal investigation — for accepting the explanation in 2021 when travel to China was not possible due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

A WADA-appointed prosecutor in Switzerland last week cleared the Montreal-based agency of bias toward China in a report that had a limited remit.

Swimming’s governing body also appointed a panel to study how it handled the case three years ago, including following WADA at the time by not challenging the Chinese claim at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The panel’s 11-page report with recommendations was published on Monday, 12 days before swimming events start in Paris at La Defense Arena. 

It detailed a promise of more anti-doping tests for athletes from some countries ahead of the Olympics, especially China.

World Aquatics said “a certain number of athletes from specific nations will be tested four times” since the start of the year by the Lausanne-based International Testing Agency, which runs anti-doping programs for many Olympic sports.

Chinese athletes competing in Paris would “be tested by the ITA no less than eight times during this same period,” the world swimming body said.

Those samples would ideally not be collected by the Chinese anti-doping agency and also not be tested by laboratories in China.

World Aquatics is set to publish those test results before the opening ceremony of the Olympics, on Friday of next week.

“What is extremely clear, and what cannot be taken for granted, is that the trust of the aquatics community is vital to the continued success of World Aquatics as an international federation,” the governing body said.

The five-member report team appointed by World Aquatics was chaired by former Spanish sports minister Miguel Cardenal, who previously was a member of the management board at CAS.

“The committee has not identified any irregularities, mismanagement or cover‐up” by World Aquatics, said the Cardenal panel, which included Olympic gold medal swimmer Florent Manaudou of France.

To rebuild trust with athletes and coaches, the panel recommended World Aquatics routinely publish details of who is provisionally suspended for potential breaches of anti-doping rules. 

It also wants details published of how often athletes are tested, and by whom, in the six months before events like an Olympics or world championships.

“World Aquatics must accept this challenge and intensify its communication with athletes,” the panel said.

SOURCE: ABCNEWS