Paris Olympics 2024: WADA executive admits he was kept in the dark over Chinese doping scandal

A former WADA executive has lifted the lid on the Chinese swimming drugs scandal, admitting he was kept in the dark over the mass ‘contaminated’ doping results.

The Australian government’s appointed representative on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)’s executive at the same time that the Chinese swimming drugs scandal was unfolding says he was kept in the dark about the ‘contaminated’ mass doping results that have shocked the sports world.

Richard Colbeck, the former federal sports minister who was serving as Oceania’s representative to WADA, said he was never told about the 23 Chinese swimmers who had tested positive to the banned drug trimetazidine in the lead up to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

The Tasmanian Liberal senator said the first he heard about it was when this masthead broke the news on Saturday morning and he couldn’t fathom why members of the WADA executive were not notified at the time.

“I was surprised to hear it because it’s a relatively significant event when you’ve got 23 athletes that have tested positive,” he said.

Richard Colbeck says he was never told about the Chinese swimmers testing positive when he was on the board of the World Anti-Doping Agency

“I don’t think anyone has any objection to a sensible process and investigation system but I was very surprised that it didn’t come to light.

“You actually have to be open about these things, otherwise you end up with the situation that you’ve got now where you basically opened up the turf for all sorts of conspiracy theories, regardless of what’s happened, like protecting the institution rather than dealing with a particular issue.”

The revelation that the matter was kept secret from board members will raise more uncomfortable questions for WADA, which is facing increasing pressure to conduct a full investigation into why the Chinese swimmers all escaped sanctions for a drug that normally carries an automatic suspension.

The level of secrecy is all the more extraordinary given that WADA had already dealt with some major politically-charged issues, including the decision to declare Russia non-complaint after hearing evidence of state-sponsored doping from whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov, the ex-head off Russia’s national anti-doping laboratory.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) director general Olivier Niggli

Colbeck said that while he has still never laid eyes on WADA’s confidential report into the Chinese swimmers, the optics were bad, not the least because it came hot on the heels of WADA’s decision to appoint Chinese speed skater Yang Yang as its vice president in 2020. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Ms Yang.

“It’s just not a good look, particularly when you’ve got senior people from a particular jurisdiction involved in the organisation as well,” Colbeck said.

“I have no issue with anything that occurred during that whole period of time that I saw but given some of the things that we were dealing with you would expect to have some sense of what’s going on with these sorts of things.

“And I didn’t see anything about it so the stuff that you guys (News Corp) voiced over the weekend was quite a surprise to me and not the sort of surprise I would have expected.”

The World Anti-Doping Agency is facing intense pressure to investigate the Chinese swimmers

WADA has continued to defend its decision not to investigate the case findings after the China anti-doping agency (CHINADA) determined that the adverse results were caused by an accidental contamination so the swimmers had no case to answer.

Some, including Zhang Yufei, Yang Junxuan and Wang Shun, then went on to win gold medals in Tokyo while many more are expected to be on the Chinese team for this year’s Paris Olympics.

WADA’s president Witold Banka has called an emergency news conference to answer questions about the case but maintains the rules were followed properly.

“Based on all available scientific evidence and intelligence, which was gathered, assessed and tested by experts in the pharmacology of trimetazidine (TMZ); and, by anti-doping experts, the Agency had no basis under the World Anti-Doping Code to challenge the China Anti-Doping Agency’s (CHINADA’s) findings of environmental contamination – a position that was also accepted by World Aquatics,” WADA said.

China’s swimmers won three gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics

Colbeck said there was a strong case for a fresh investigation.

“I think the least that they can do is to provide a high level of detail to everybody to understand what’s going on,” he said.

“People need to have confidence in the system and I think this is the issue.

“We had a lot of conversations around the table discussing Rodchenkov, which the Americans put through, and why did they do that? Because they didn’t have confidence in the system and they were frustrated about particular things in relation To the Russians.

“We spend more time discussing the differences of opinion rather than actually dealing with the actual issue, which is ensuring clean sport and.

“Maintaining confidence in the system is paramount so whatever they do, it has to be looked at in that context.”

Originally published as Paris Olympics 2024: WADA executive admits he was kept in the dark over Chinese doping scandal