Chinese swimming scandal: Australian government called on to join fight over doping ‘cover-up’

The Australian government has been called on join the anti-doping crusade and ensure our swimmers have a fair chance of winning gold at the upcoming Paris Olympics.

The Australian government has been dragged into the Chinese swimming scandal that has rocked the sports world, with American anti-drugs crusaders now calling on Canberra to step into the ring and start asking the tough questions to ensure our swimmers have a fair chance of winning gold at the upcoming Paris Olympics.

Having already accused global regulators WADA of conspiring in a ‘cover-up’ with the Chinese authorities who let 23 swimmers escape without punishment after they failed drugs tests in the lead-up to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) is calling on governments around the world to check the facts for themselves.

“As a result of the global anti-doping system’s obvious failure, we urgently call on governments and sport leaders to step up and immediately undertake action to ensure that real independence, oversight, and accountability are created in the global anti-doping system so that the world can have trust and confidence in the system and those who lead it,” USADA said in a statement.

Travis Tygart, CEO of the US Anti-Doping Agency has called on governments around the world to demand answers to the Chinese swimming scandal

“Given we are on the eve of the 2024 Summer Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games, athletes and the public desperately need and deserve confidence in the global anti-doping system headed into these Games.

“An immediate first step to repairing the damage of this cover-up is for governments to appoint an independent Prosecutor to review the entire case file of the 23 positive tests and ensure that justice is delivered in these cases.”

Nothing to see her. World Anti-Doping Agency President Witold Banka says there is no need to investigate the Chinese doping scandal

While USADA did not name any individual countries in its powerful call to arms, it was a clear message to the Australian government, which has long been a major player in the global fight for clean sport.

There have only been four presidents of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), but the second was an Aussie, the late John Fahey.

Australian taxpayers’ money is still used to help fund WADA and the current federal sports minister Anika Wells is on the WADA Foundation Board.

Sports minister Anika Wells says Australia has a lot of influence in fighting global doping

In 2022, Wells issued a statement highlighting Australia’s senior role in global anti-doping and the ongoing commitment to the global fight for clean sport.

“The leadership position that we hold within the anti-doping community enables us to influence the response to emerging threats and issues in the anti-doping environment,” Wells said.

“Threats to the integrity of sport don’t stop at our border. Australia must do its part internationally to ensure we protect sport together.”

WADA has strongly refuted any suggestion it was involved in a cover up or went ‘soft’ on China in dealing with the case.

WADA’s leaders held a global conference on Tuesday to defend their decision not to challenge the ruling by Chinese authorities that all the swimmers who tested positive were innocent victims of contamination so would not be sanctioned.

Zhang Yufei was among the Chinese swimmers who gold at the Tokyo Olympics. Picture: Getty

But not everyone is convinced so WADA remains under intense pressure because the drug they tested positive for trimetazidine, or TMZ, normally carried an automatic ban.

Tasmanian senator Richard Colbeck, who was on the WADA executive at the same time the Chinese swimmers were being investigated, revealed to this masthead that the Chinese cases were hushed up and WADA’s own executives were never informed about them.

USADA, led by Travis Tygart, the American lawyer who nabbed Lance Armstrong, wants the countries with the most influence on WADA to lead the way and demand answers after WADA’s executives said there was no need to question the Chinese findings.

Australia’s best swimmers lost their world record when they were beaten for gold in the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay at Tokyo. Picture: Getty

The details only came to light three years later when this masthead broke the news.

“The statute of limitations has not run out in these cases and the pathway for application of the rules and due process may still exist,” USADA said.

“The effort to achieve whatever justice possible at this time must happen before the 2024 Paris Games, as it is unfair for all athletes competing in these Games to possibly compete against those who tested positive and whose results were kept secret until now.

“WADA’s willingness to blindfold and handcuff itself as we learned yesterday, and to maintain that it would do the same thing all over again, is yet another stab in the back to clean athletes.

“How can a global regulator possibly be satisfied when it allows 23 positive tests to be swept under the carpet, and no athlete or organisation is held accountable?”

China's Shun Wang went on to win gold at the Tokyo Olympics after being cleared of doping. Picture: Getty

Olympic swimming is of particular importance to American and Australian sports fans as they traditionally dominate the medals table and were expected to contend for top honours at the Paris Olympics, starting July 26.

But the Chinese have suddenly resurfaced as a major threat, winning multiple gold medals and breaking world records at the last two world championships, leading to whispers on the pool deck about why they were improving so suddenly.

TMZ is the same drug that China’s most famous swimmer Sun Yang once tested positive for – triggering his ugly war of words with Australian champion Mack Horton at the Rio Olympics.

Of the nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers who tested positive to TMZ in 2021, a third went on to compete at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics – with three winning gold medals – and the numbers of medal contenders are rapidly swelling ahead of Paris.

Mack Horton protested at the decision to let Sun Yang swim at the 2019 world championships when he was still under investigation. Picture: Getty

Privately, Olympic officials are concerned that things could come to the boil in Paris because it has happened before.

Relations between China’s swimmers and their rivals spilt over at the 2019 world championships when Horton, then Britain’s Duncan Scott, staged silent protests after Sun was allowed to keep even though he was being investigated for tampering with his own samples before they could be tested for performance-enhancing drugs. He was later banned for over four years so missed Tokyo.

USADA says a full, independent inquiry should happen before Paris.

“We also call on the Governments at the WADA Executive and Foundation Board to launch a full review of how it came to be that 23 Chinese positive tests were covered up, and WADA allowed it to happen without any consequence, contrary to its own rules,” USADA said.

Tensions have come to the boil at international swimming events previously. Picture: Getty

“All athletes, sponsors, and fans of the Olympic and Paralympic Movement deserve a real global guard dog that has the teeth and the determination to apply the rules uniformly and fairly.

“Additionally, following this review, we call on governments and the sport movement to overhaul WADA to ensure a cover-up of positive samples on the eve of the Olympic Games cannot occur ever again, and to once and for all remove the fox from guarding the hen house by making WADA truly independent.”

Originally published as Chinese swimming scandal: Australian government called on to join fight over doping ‘cover-up’