On Tuesday, the fourth day of the Paris Olympics, several overseas media outlets reported on old cases of Chinese athletes testing positive for drugs. The latest revelations during the Paris Olympics have once again brought attention to the issue of China allegedly covering up doping incidents involving its athletes.
Reuters cited a report from The New York Times on Tuesday, stating that in 2022, two swimmers tested positive for a prohibited steroid, but their temporary suspension was revoked due to the investigation attributing it to food contamination.
The China Anti-Doping Center (CHINADA) could not determine how the swimmers ingested the steroid, but concluded that they likely consumed contaminated beef burgers at a restaurant in Beijing.
Travis Tygart, head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, as quoted by Reuters, stated that China attempted to “cover up the positive test results for these potent steroids.”
Tygart further added that “the hopes and dreams of clean athletes have been robbed by these mistakes” after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) allowed China to cover up 23 positive tests of Chinese swimmers.
He argued that the international community must “change” its practices, or risk undermining confidence in “the values of the Olympics.”
In April this year, Germany’s ARD TV and The New York Times exposed 23 Chinese swimmers testing positive for the banned substance tuaminoheptane before a domestic competition ahead of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. However, CHINADA determined that it was due to contamination in the kitchen of the athletes’ hotel, absolving the athletes of any fault or negligence, and thus not constituting a doping violation.
Despite this determination being endorsed by WADA, 13 athletes competed in the Tokyo Olympics, with three winning gold medals.
After the media exposure, WADA faced severe criticism for its “secretive actions and failure to oversee properly” in this matter.
In a statement released on Tuesday, WADA announced that athletes were provisionally suspended immediately upon receiving the positive test results, pending the conclusion of the investigation by the end of 2023.
WADA added that besides the two swimmers, a cyclist and a shooter also tested positive for metandienone in late 2022 and early 2023 at different locations and times.
WADA denied the claims in the latest news reports that one of these athletes was participating in the Paris Olympics.
The history of the Chinese swimming team’s use of doping is long-standing, with frequent doping cases in the sport leading to multiple athletes facing suspensions.
Former national team doctor Xue Yinxi revealed how in 1978, the National Sports Commission first proposed encouraging athletes to use stimulants. She disclosed that from 1980 onwards, stimulants were widely used by the national team.
Xue emphasized that excessive use or injection of stimulants can severely damage the liver, brain, and heart functions of the human body, leading to feminization in women, infertility, and shrinkage of sexual functions in men.
Former director of the Chinese National Sports Administration, Wu Shaozu, mentioned in his memoirs that there was a consensus in the Chinese sports community at the time that if performance was inadequate, athletes had to use stimulants. The principles guiding stimulant use were: effectiveness, safety, and being undetectable.