There are damning new claims a senior Olympic official leaked Ian Thorpe’s private medical records

World swimming’s new boss has called for an independent investigation into the leaking of Ian Thorpe’s private medical records from more than a decade ago after explosive new claims that a senior Olympic official was behind the breach.

Swimming’s world governing body has long been suspected of trying to sabotage Thorpe’s career by leaking misinformation about his confidential test results in 2007 — then reneging on a promise to investigate the matter.

But FINA’s new president Husain Al Musallam, who was elected on a platform of reforming and cleaning up the sport’s troubled ruling body, said it was not too late to reopen the case and ensure that justice is served.

“Of course, I would support an independent investigation,” Al Musallam told The Sunday Telegraph.

“It is wrong for anyone to leak any records, that’s my principle.

“We have to follow a process … but if there is any evidence accusing any person, including me, then they should be punished.”

Al Musallam’s pledge to throw the book at anyone involved in the leak follows fresh claims the culprit is also a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and served on the executive board of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

Independent witnesses have alleged to The Sunday Telegraph that ex-FINA president Mustapha Larfaoui was the Olympic official who tipped off the French journalist who published the article in L‘Equipe.

Speaking exclusively to The Sunday Telegraph, Larfaoui — now 88 — does not deny talking to the reporter, but said he no longer recalls what he told him.

“Sorry – it was 14 years ago,” Larfaoui said.

“I don’t remember well that situation and I don’t want to say the wrong thing.

Larfaoui has always been one of the prime suspects in the unsolved mystery about who leaked Thorpe’s confidential test results to the French newspaper during the 2007 world championships in Melbourne.

His apparent memory loss is unlikely to garner much sympathy from other leading sports officials because of the important positions he was entrusted with at the time — the presidency of FINA, membership of the IOC and a seat on the executive board at WADA.

The IOC has strict rules about how its members must act, as well as options to independently investigate any members accused of wrongdoing.

Larfaoui was first elected to the IOC in 1995 and while he no longer gets to vote, he remains an honorary member. He is also an honorary life president of FINA. His perks include an all-expenses paid trip to the Tokyo Olympics.

The Algerian has always denied deliberately trying to smear Thorpe’s reputation but if the allegations are true, the flippant manner in which world swimming’s most powerful figure inadvertently leaked the news reveals a callous disregard for the rules.

It allegedly happened in 2006, at a WADA meeting in Montreal, Canada, witnesses have told The Sunday Telegraph.

It‘s claimed that Larfaoui approached a renowned drug-busting journalist from L’Equipe at a reception and proceeded to tell him about a swimmer’s private test results.

The unidentified swimmer had returned a sample showing elevated levels of testosterone, which were proved to have occurred naturally. That meant it was not a violation so the swimmer’s identity had to be kept secret.

But the following year, during the world titles in Melbourne, Larfaoui allegedly confirmed to the same journalist that the swimmer involved was Thorpe – which became global front page news once L‘Equipe published its article.

In an alleged clear violation of anti-doping protocols, Larfaoui later allegedly explained to his most trusted inner circle at FINA that he was unaware the man he had disclosed the information to was a journalist.

Even if his account was true, that would not absolve Larfaoui of being at fault because telling anyone amounts to a serious breach of athlete privacy rules.

A closely-guarded secret for years, the alleged details about FINA’s role in leaking Thorpe’s test results have only just come to light through The Sunday Telegraph’s ongoing investigation into the sport’s murky past.

According to confidential documents seen by The Sunday Telegraph dating from 2006, Australian anti-doping officials have long held deep reservations about the way FINA conducted itself while the case was being investigated.

Professor Ken Fitch, who was the chairman of the Australian Sports Drug Medical Advisory Committee (ASDMAC) at the time, wrote to the FINA Doping Control Review Board (DCRB) notifying it that a FINA official had “breached confidentiality by advising Swimming Australia of the name of an athlete who remained under investigation but has not returned a positive sample.”

Australian authorities were becoming increasingly alarmed by the leaks coming from FINA, with professor Fitch writing: “We have concerns that he/she may do so again‘.”

The Sunday Telegraph also unearthed a confidential report about how FINA pressured Australian doping investigators to charge Thorpe with a violation even when all the scientific evidence pointed to the fact he was innocent.

It was revealed that FINA secretly ordered target tests on Thorpe while he was training in California even though his identity was still meant to be a secret.

It was also revealed that FINA kept hounding Australian authorities about the case while it was still under investigation.

Marculescu even wrote to Australian doping officials asking that the case be treated as a positive test before scientists had finished their work.

When the Australian investigators ruled that Thorpe had no case to answer, FINA filed two appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Both were thrown out, around the same time Thorpe’s private results were leaked.

SWIMMING’S PLANS TO CLOSE SUN YANG LOOPHOLE

Swimming’s world governing body has begun drafting plans to close the loophole that allowed Sun Yang to keep the two gold medals he received at the 2019 world championship when he should have already been banned from the event.

The Chinese freestyler was controversially allowed to race at the championships after a FINA Doping Panel wrongly cleared him of tampering with his own samples before they could be checked for drugs.

FINA’s handling of the case was heavily criticised by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which later found Sun guilty and suspended him for more than four years, ruling him out of the Tokyo Olympics but was powerless to strip him of the medals.

Now, FINA’s newly elected president Husain Al Musallam wants to ensure that situation never happens again so is pushing for a radical change to the way FINA deals with doping cases.

In his first full interview since being elected as the new boss of global aquatic sports, Al Musallam revealed that FINA is finally prepared to hand over the investigation of doping issues to a fully independent integrity unit.

Al Musallam said the details are still being finalised by FINA’s newly appointed reform committee but he confirmed a recommendation will be made as early as December for approval at the extraordinary congress that has been arranged in Abu Dhabi to accelerate overdue reforms.

“We need to modernise our doping strategy,” Al Musallam said.

FINA BOWS TO CALLS FOR CHANGE

One of the last major international sporting bodies to hand over control of doping matters to an independent body, FINA’s sudden change of heart will be welcomed by everyone who supports clean sport.

FINA had argued that its existing panel was already independent, even though half of its medical experts, including the chairman, resigned in protest at FINA’s decision not to accept their recommendations for the Russian swimmers who competed at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

That divide only deepened at the last world championships when leading swimmers, including Australia’s anti-drugs crusader Mack Horton, began publicly protesting against FINA’s bungling administrators.

A former airline pilot from Kuwait, Al Musallam has promised to fix FINA’s deep rooted governance problems after being elected unopposed last month as the sport’s president for the next four years.

His announcement to reform follows an investigation by The Sunday Telegraph that lifted the lid on FINA’s governance problems and raised serious questions about past leaders.

“It is not enough to have good athletes and good coaches and good officials at the swimming pool,” he said.

“Without a good governing body, the whole thing will collapse, so this is the time that we need to come together and talk to each other.

“We need to create a good environment where we work together under the same roof and there is transparency for everyone.”

CHANGE OF SPENDING HABITS REVEALED

The 61-year-old has already broken the news to FINA executives that they will lose the eye-watering perks they have become accustomed to so that more of the sport’s vast fortune can go to cash-strapped athletes.

He also told The Sunday Telegraph that reforms are in the pipeline to give athletes a greater say in matters that impact them, such as the timing of Olympic events after the farcical situation in Rio when races were starting just before midnight.

He also revealed that he plans to increase the number of women on FINA and its various committees, with former Chinese diver Zhou Jihong recently promoted to vice-president.

Al Musallam has already signalled his intent to break with FINA’s shady past by hiring US lawyer Brent Nowicki as the new executive director, replacing Cornel Marculescu, the ex-Romanian secret service policeman who recently quit after 35 years at the helm.

Nowicki‘s appointment is perhaps the clearest sign that FINA might be serious about reforming as the American is highly respected in the sports world, having served as the head of the CAS Anti-Doping Division at the last two Olympics.

“I believe that he is a man for the future and he can do the work for the future first. He‘s young and we need young ideas,” Al Musallam said.

“We need to modernise and he is a man of integrity so believe that we will see a lot of changes over the next few years.”