Paris Olympics 2024: Chinese swimmers secretly banned by WADA

Two Chinese swimmers were secretly given a provisional ban of 12 months after failing doping tests in 2022, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has confirmed.

Two Chinese swimmers were secretly given a provisional ban of 12 months after failing doping tests in 2022, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has confirmed.

One of the swimmers is competing at the Paris Olympics and was part of the Chinese relay that upset Australia to win gold at the last Olympics in Tokyo.

WADA said the two swimmers tested positive for the banned steroid metandienone in 2022 and were provisionally suspended, pending investigation and remained so until late 2023 when the investigation concluded.

They were later found not guilty of doping, with Chinese regulators CHINADA ruling they had been contaminated by eating tainted meat from burgers.

“In relation to the swimmers, the samples were collected on 6 October 2022 and following analysis at the WADA-accredited laboratory in Beijing, were found to have trace amounts of the substance in their systems (in the pg/mL range, with 1pg being a trillionth of a gram),” WADA said in a statement.

“They were duly notified and provisionally suspended on 3 November 2022 with the view to asserting a four-year period of ineligibility before a Chinese Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) anti-doping tribunal.

“As the hearing was being prepared by CHINADA, athlete-commissioned testing of meat samples found a number of positive results for metandienone.”

WADA said two other Chinese athletes – a BMX rider and a shooter – also tested positive to the same substance, prompting a review of the swimmers.

“This development led CHINADA to suspend proceedings against the two swimmers pending an investigation for possible contamination,” WADA.

“The investigation by CHINADA included the testing of hundreds of meat samples from various sources, with dozens revealing positive results for metandienone.

“CHINADA also analyzed the athletes’ nutritional supplements and conducted hair tests, which were negative. Significantly, both the swimmers provided negative doping control samples in the days before and after the single trace positive.

“Following its investigation, CHINADA concluded that the four cases were most likely linked to meat contamination and, in late 2023, closed the cases without asserting a violation, with the athletes having remained provisionally suspended throughout that time.

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“WADA and the relevant International Federations (including the Union Cycliste Internationale, the International Shooting Sport Federation and World Aquatics) all had the opportunity to review the cases and, if appropriate, take appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

“WADA thoroughly reviewed the cases in early 2024 with all due skepticism, and concluded that there was no evidence to challenge contaminated meat as the source of the positive tests and therefore decided not to appeal to CAS. None of the various other Anti-Doping Organizations appealed either.”

The bombshell announcement comes three months after we broke the news that 23 Chinese swimmers were secretly exonerated after testing positive to a banned heart drug in 2021.

WADA has been criticised for not appealing the findings but maintains it was not being lenient on the Chinese.

“As WADA has indicated previously, once there is no evidence to contest a no-fault contamination scenario, no Anti-Doping Organization has ever appealed a case to convert a finding of no violation into one of a violation with no fault.,” WADA said.

“However, off the back of these cases, WADA wanted to assess the circumstances, scale and risk of meat contamination with metandienone in China and other countries. As a result, WADA initiated an investigation in early 2024.

“WADA is generally concerned about the number of cases that are being closed without sanction when it is not possible to challenge the contamination theory successfully before CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport).

“There have been many cases of positive tests that were eventually closed without sanction as no-fault violations, sometimes with unusual methods of contamination.

“Apart from China, in particular, there have been several of these cases in the United States in the past few months alone, where highly intricate contamination scenarios were accepted. The ongoing review of the World Anti-Doping Code and International Standards will provide an opportunity to consider possible solutions to this ongoing issue for clean sport.

“The politicization of Chinese swimming continues with this latest attempt by the media in the United States to imply wrongdoing on the part of WADA and the broader anti-doping community. As we have seen over recent months, WADA has been unfairly caught in the middle of geopolitical tensions between superpowers but has no mandate to participate in that.”

Olympic officials have pleaded for drug agencies WADA and the International Testing Agency to “be able to do their job”.

The International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams pleaded on Tuesday “let WADA and the ITA do their job, they do their job very well’’. He revealed, “to reassure you”, that Chinese athletes have been tested 600 times since January this year.

Originally published as Paris Olympics 2024: Chinese swimmers secretly banned by WADA