Rio Olympics set to be the most doped-up swimming event in history

THE Rio Olympics are set to be the most doped-up swimming event in history, according to John Leonard, head of the World Swimming Coaches Association.

John Leonard, executive director of World Swimming coaches Assoc during press conference at World Swimming Championships, /P...

THE RIO Olympics are set to be the most doped-up swimming event in history.

That’s the shocking view of John Leonard, head of the World Swimming Coaches Association, who believes next year’s Olympics are set to be a “nightmare of doping” because the world swimming body FINA has “given up” on running a “clean sport”.

Some of the sport’s most prolific Olympic gold medal favourites, including Chinese superstar Sun Yang have been caught doping, then excused with secret and insignificant doping bans.

“I think we are in for a nightmare of doping in Rio,” Mr Leonard said.

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“I have been working in anti-doping since before 1980 and I don’t think it has ever been worse than it is right now.

The unfinished Rio Olympic swimming pool.

“Things were very bad during the East German era, but right now it is not confined to a few nations, it is probably almost every nation on earth where there is doping going on.

“It is highly sophisticated, we are catching fractions of what is going on, there are giant loop holes. Number one is that athletes are very effectively using the concepts of micro-doping to stay below the radar screen and yet still get performance-enhancing effects.”

Two convicted dopers and reigning world champions, Sun Yang and new 100m freestyle king Ning Zetao, are being trained in Australia for the Olympics by Australian coaches.

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Olympic champion Park Tae-hwan was also training in Australia but in January this year it was announced that he had failed a drug test. Park’s management blamed an “injection for chiropractic treatment” but his ban will lift in time for the Rio Olympics.

Yang tested positive for the stimulant trimetazidine on May 17 last year during Chinese Nationals and was given a backdated three month ban which didn’t force him out of the water.

FINA executive director Cornel Marculescu told German TV on the last day of the world championships: “You cannot condemn the stars just because they had a minor incident with doping.”

It is a principle reason as to why Mr Leonard has led the charge to form the World Swimming Association, an organisation aiming to become a new governing body for swimmers and coaches.

The founding meeting was held last week.

“The worst thing is that FINA has given up and is not attempting to run a clean sport,” Mr Leonard said.

Convicted drug cheat Sun Yang training on the Gold Coast.

“When they allow doping tests from Sun Yang in China to go unpunished essentially; when they allow his doctor to be on the pool deck at the Asian Games; when they go back a couple of years and accept a completely flimsy excuse from Cesar Cielo and others in Brazil; when they have Russian juniors after Russian juniors after Russian juniors test positive for old fashion drugs, the tactic is obvious.

“The Russians are using drugs that are easily detectable. The Russians seeing what masking agents will work with their senior athletes. Not having seniors test positives, they are using juniors as guinea pigs to find what masking agents will be effective.

“Sun Yang is a convicted doper and Sun Yang was awarded the athlete of the meet. It is just egregious and never-ending.”

This week Australian swimmer Kylie Palmer escaped reprimand and has been cleared to swim in Rio despite taking a banned masking agent in 2013. Palmer was originally cleared by FINA after “low levels of a prohibited substance” were found in her in-competition sample. But the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) obtained details of the case and in turn asked the Court of Arbitration of Sport to order FINA to treat the case as an anti-doping violation.

Olympic champion Park Tae-hwan is set to swim in Rio despite failing a drug test this year.

Australian swim coach great Bill Sweetenham also slammed FINA’s erratic approach to anti-doping.

“It’s disgraceful,” Mr Sweetenham said. “They have no consistency. They prefer them not to come up so they try and hide them.”

Mr Leonard believes it is also too easy to cheat the system these days.

“The WADA rules and national rules, in many countries that don’t allow testing for a block in an eight hour time form 10pm to 6am which means you basically have eight hours in where you basically won’t be tested, that’s when micro doping works beautifully,” Mr Leonard said.

“The third one is we are still trying to catch 2015 cheats with 1985 technology. We are using very outdated techniques which still leaves us looking for needles in haystacks.”

Mr Leonard added: “We are absolutely in the worst situation we have ever been in. Until we change our technology it will not catch up it will just get worse.”

He said the power needed to be handed back to the athletes.

“The biggest single thing here is we need to form an organisation. Athlete centred, professionally managed, coach directed instead of an organisation for and by a bunch old white guys in blazers, and by the way, I am an old white guy,” he said.

Originally published as Rio Olympics set to be the most doped-up swimming event in history