Twenty-three Chinese swimmers have been allowed to compete in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics despite testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine, used as a heart medication.
But the World Anti-Doping Agency said the athletes’ positive tests were the result of “accidental exposure to the substance through contamination”, a claim initially made by the China Doping Agency.
With the opening ceremony of the Paris Games scheduled for later this week – the first Olympics since the scandal – decorated U.S. swimmer Katie Ledecky is skeptical.
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Katie Ledecky of the United States wins the women’s 800-meter freestyle final during the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Swimming Trials at Lucas Oil Stadium on June 22, 2024 in Indianapolis. (Al Bello/Getty Images)
“Hopefully, everybody here will be able to come into the game this week with a clean slate, but what really matters is that they’ve been training with a clean slate,” Ledecky said Wednesday. “Hopefully, that’s the case. Hopefully, with all the testing going on around the world.”
An ongoing investigation into alleged doping by Chinese swimmers in the United States has angered the International Olympic Committee, which on Wednesday awarded Salt Lake City the host city for the 2034 Winter Olympics and called on Utah authorities to do all they can to thwart the FBI investigation.
“I think we’ve all heard what the athletes are thinking. They want transparency. They want more answers to the questions that still remain. At this point, we’re here to race. We’re going to race the athletes in the lane next to us. We’re not being paid to be tested, so we hope that those who are tested follow their own rules. That’s true now and will be true in the future.”
WADA said it acted because “misleading information” had been spread in the media. WADA said it had received information about alleged doping cover-ups in China from the United States Anti-Doping Agency as early as 2020, before this incident, but never subsequently presented evidence.
China celebrates its gold medal win at the awards ceremony for the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games held at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre. (Rob Schumacher/USA Today Sports)
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But WADA said it had “thoroughly reviewed the matter” and “concluded that there are no specific grounds to dispute the alleged contamination.”
“We followed all due procedures in this case and diligently investigated all leads and investigative avenues,” the agency said in a statement.
China’s 30-member swimming team won six medals, including three gold medals, in Tokyo, and many of its athletes are still competing for China and are expected to swim at the Paris Olympics.
China’s relay team celebrates their victory during the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Summer Games held at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre. (Rob Schumacher/USA Today Sports)
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Ledecky is a seven-time gold medalist and will be competing in her fourth Olympic Games.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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