US swimmer Katie Ledecky takes aim at Chinese doping scandal at 2024 Paris Olympic Games
The world doping authority is doing its best to extinguish the furore around the Chinese doping scandal but clean athletes like US swim star Katie Ledecky are having none of it.
Swimming
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The Chinese doping scandal is getting close to boiling point.
No matter how hard officials try to extinguish it, they just can’t stop clean athletes from having their say on the biggest drugs row since the Russians got caught with their hands in the cookie jar.
American swimming legend Katie Ledecky is the latest icon of the sport to wade into the simmering war of words with China after this masthead revealed 23 of their top swimmers were secretly cleared in 2021 despite testing to a banned performance enhancing drug.
“I hope everyone here is going to be competing clean this week but what really matters also is were they training clean,” Ledecky told a news conference in Paris.
“Hopefully, that’s been the case. Hopefully there’s been even testing around the world.
“Everyone’s heard what the athletes think. They want transparency. They want further answers to the questions that still remain.”
While the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is going blue in the face trying to convince everyone that the Chinese did not break any rules and that the positive results were all caused by contaminated food from a hotel kitchen, what’s crystal clear is that swimmers from other countries aren’t buying that.
British superstar Adam Peaty has already publicly questioned whether the swimming events in Paris will be a ‘fair fight’ and now Ledecky has joined in, querying whether the Chinese thought they could get away with cheating as long as they did it at home.
“If you’re trying to get an advantage you can do it at any time,” Ledecky said.
“So if people are training with things in their system that shouldn’t be in their system, then they’re getting an advantage.
“That’s why we’re tested frequently, randomly. Our whereabouts, you know, we have to keep them up to date constantly, when we’re training, when we’re here.
“So we’re following all those rules. And again, all that we ask is that those rules are being applied fairly and consistently worldwide.”
Ledecky’s comments will no doubt infuriate WADA, who have already pointed the finger at the United States for inflaming the row for political reasons even though an independent prosecutor found that the global anti-doping regulator did everything above board.
But the questions just won’t go away and the Americans aren’t backing down, despite threats from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that the US could lose the hosting rights to the 2034 Winter Games if it didn’t recognise WADA’s authority.
“I go with what Katie,” Ledecky’s coach Anthony Nesty said. “All we want is transparency.
“In our standpoint, this is one of the best sports on the planet. To further the sport, we have to keep it as clean as possible.”
World Aquatics, swimming’s global governing body, has also acquitted the Chinese of cheating but revealed this week that it had ordered the International Testing Agency (TYA) to oversee a drug testing blitz on the Chinese in the lead up to Paris.
According to the data, Chinese swimmers were tested at an average of 21 times in 2024, compared to an average of four for Australians and six for Americans.
But now questions are being asked about whether that’s all too little too late with the Chinese tipped to win a record number of gold medals in Paris after a recent spike in performances, raising the prospect of protests at the pool.
The men’s breaststroke races are shaping as a potential flash point
Peaty is the two-time gold medallist in the 100m while Australia’s Zac Stubblety-Cook is the defending champion over 200m.
But the favourite is Qin Haiyang, the reigning male world swimmer of the year, who was among the 23 Chinese let off after testing positive in 2021.
“I imagine everyone here at this meet is tested quite a bit,” US breaststroker Nic Fink said. “So I’m hoping for a fair race as well.”
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