One of America’s most decorated Olympians wants to ensure everything is played fairly in Paris.
On Thursday, swimmer Katie Ledecky spoke openly about competing against Chinese swimmers who may have been taking the banned drug trimetazidine (TMZ).
“I hope that everyone in Paris will play a clean game this week.” Ledecky said. “But what really matters is, did they have a clean training? Hopefully they did. Hopefully there was testing going on around the world.”
“I think we’ve all heard what the players are thinking. They want transparency. They want more answers to the questions that still remain.”
One question is whether China, with 23 swimmers embroiled in a scandal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, will be able to hold on to the six medals it won in swimming three years ago.
Those swimmers were initially allowed to take part in the 2021 Olympics after the World Anti-Doping Agency speculated they had been accidentally exposed to TMZ through contamination.
Overall, China placed fourth in the Tokyo swimming competition, behind the United States, Australia and Great Britain.
The alleged cheating didn’t affect the legendary Ledecky, who went on to win gold medals in the 800m and 1500m freestyle, as well as silver medals in the 400m and 4x200m freestyle.
With competition set to pick up steam from the Paris Games, China’s next team will feature 11 swimmers from its disgraced 2020 squad, including gold medallists Zhang Yufei and Wang Shun.
But the fact that such athletes are allowed to participate without a full drug clearance doesn’t put too much of a strain on Ledecky or any other athlete who is focused on being an individual.
“At this point, we’re here to race,” Ledecky said. “We’re going to race whoever’s in the lane next to us. We’re not getting paid to be tested, so we hope that those who are getting tested follow their own rules.”
Swimming begins in France on Saturday with qualifying for the women’s 100-meter butterfly.
