WADA call extraordinary meeting over Chinese swimming scandal ahead of independent report

With the Chinese swimming scandal threatening to boil over at the upcoming Paris Olympics, WADA has called an extraordinary meeting.

World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) President Witold Banka. Picture: Fabrice Coffrini/ AFP

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has called an extraordinary meeting to discuss the Chinese swimming scandal that is threatening to boil over at the upcoming Paris Olympics.

The hastily-called meeting - which will involve Australia’s federal sports minister Anika Wells - will take place this Friday through a global hook up.

WADA is already facing intense criticism after this masthead broke the news that 23 Chinese swimmers were all secretly cleared of wrongdoing despite testing positive for a banned drug in the lead-up to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

Still refuting suggestions they went soft on China, WADA has since agreed to launch an independent review into the case findings - which is due late next month - and now also called an extra meeting of its 42 foundation board members.

“The objective of the Board meeting is to provide members with the opportunity to be further informed on this important matter by WADA experts and to be able to ask any questions that they may have,” WADA said in a statement.

The latest development comes just days after World Aquatics sent a confidential letter to national swimming federations, including Swimming Australia, confirming it was launching its own independent audit.

World Aquatics President Husain Al Musallam has ordered an independent investigation into the Chinese case.

In the letter, which this masthead has had confirmed, World Aquatics announced it had appointed a five-person anti-doping committee to review the findings from the explosive Chinese case, in which nearly two dozen swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine, or TMZ, the same banned heart drug Sun Yang was once busted for.

China’s Ministry of Public Security, the same intelligence agency that was used to catch Chinese dissidents who participated in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, deemed that the swimmers had no case to answer because they had been accidentally contaminated by eating food from a hotel kitchen.

Both WADA and World Aquatics agreed with the findings but are under siege to please explain because serious questions are being asked whether the rules were followed.

Athletes caught using TMZ normally incur an automatic ban, regardless of whether they took the drug intentionally or not but the Chinese were all let off.

Some, including Zhang Yufei, Yang Junxuan and Wang Shun, then went on to win gold medals in Tokyo while around half of the 23 who tested positive have been selected in the Chinese swim team for Paris, raising the real threat of protests.

“We hope that the results of this investigation will help erase any circulating doubt about the anti-doping movement and place the minds of our athletes at ease heading into the Paris Olympic Games,” World Aquatics wrote in its letter.

Zhang Yufei won two gold medals for China at the Tokyo Olympics.

The investigating committee includes Australian lawyer Annabelle Williams, a former Paralympic swimming champion who serves on a number of important sporting organisations, including as a board member of Swimming Australia, a member of the National Sports Tribunal and former legal counsel to the Australian Olympic Committee.

Along with the United States - who has called for WADA to be completely dismantled over its handling of the bombshell revelations - Australia has been one of the most vocal critics calling for further transparency with Sport Integrity Australia and Swimming Australia both asking for independent reviews.

Swimming Australia CEO Rob Woodhouse told this masthead he met face-to-face with World Aquatics leaders in Queensland in the days immediately after the story broke and said something needs to be done to restore faith in the system.

“That’s why we need to push for that transparency. Not just now because of what’s happening with China and the CHINADA (China Anti-Doping Agency) situation, but that transparency has got to be ongoing,” he said.

“Athletes have a right to have this sort of information and know about it. It’s a really important part of the fight against drugs in sport.”