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Fresh reports of widespread doping in China, tarnishing 10,000 athletes

POLICE intimidation, male athletes growing breasts from banned drug cocktails and Chinese government threats — whistleblower’s stunning doping claims.

10,000 athletes.
10,000 athletes.

A CHINESE whistleblower, now seeking political asylum in Germany, has claimed there was a systematic doping program in China during the 1980s and 1990s across a range of sports.

In a television interview with German broadcaster ARD, Chinese doctor Xue Yinxian, 79, claims more than 10,000 athletes in different sports were involved in a state-backed doping program.

The interview with Xue comes from the same German investigative team which first made claims of widespread doping in Russia which ultimately led to the Russian athletics’ team being banned from the 2016 Olympic Games.

Xue says all medals won by Chinese athletes at major international tournaments in the last two decades of the 20th century are tainted by doping and should be handed back.

In the summer Olympics alone, China won 80 gold medals from 1980 through to the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

“In the 1980s and 90s, Chinese athletes on the national teams made extensive use of doping substances, claims Xue.

“Medals were tainted by doping — gold, silver and bronze.

“All international medals (won by Chinese athletes in that time) should be taken back.”

Xue had worked as a doctor with several national Chinese teams from the 1970s, but fled China with her son after first speaking out against doping in 2012 and says she no longer felt safe in her home city, Beijing.

Doping continues to cast a shadow over Olympic competition.
Doping continues to cast a shadow over Olympic competition.

“There must have been more than 10,000 people involved,” claims Xue.

“People (in China) believed only in doping, anyone who took doping substances was seen to be defending the (honour of the) country.

“Anyone against doping damaged the country and anyone who endangered the country now sits in prison.”

Xue says tests for doping at that time had only one purpose — to ensure Chinese athletes travelled to competitions without being caught.

She says the call sign ‘Grandma is home’ was applied to those athletes who no longer had traces of doping substances in their body.

Xue says doping was compulsory for athletes in the teams she worked with. “If you refused to dope, you had to leave the team,” she said. “At first, the youth-age group teams used the substances — the youngest were 11 years old.

“I couldn’t do anything about it.” Xue says she first became aware of the problem when a coach came to her concerned about the physical changes in male athletes, aged between 13 and 14, due to substances handed out by Chinese officials.

She says she was dismissed from working with the national Chinese team for refusing to treat a gymnast with a banned substance at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, but kept working in lower level Chinese sport.

She says she was warned to keep quiet about doping in China before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Summer Games.

She claims there were attempts by the Chinese government to intimidate her and police cars were often parked outside her home.

She says she was visited in her Beijing apartment by government officials. “They warned me against talking about doping substances,” she said. “They urged me to back down.

“I said I couldn’t do that. They wanted to silence me.

“After the death of my husband, they constantly came to me when there was a sporting event.

“I was forbidden to talk about it (doping), sometimes they phoned our home at 5am.

“Both of my sons lost their jobs.” ARD reporters tried to contact the Chinese Olympic Committee and China’s Ministry of Sports for a response to the claims, but never received a reply, according to the broadcaster.

WADA INVESTIGATES NEW CHINA CLAIMS

Five years later and nothing has changed.
Five years later and nothing has changed.

THE World Anti-Doping Agency is looking into allegations made by a German broadcaster that Chinese athletes benefited from systematic doping in the 1980s and 90s.

“The allegations were brought forward by former Chinese physician, Xue Yinxian, who is said to have looked after several national teams in China during the decades in question,” WADA said Monday.

Xue, who recently arrived in Germany and is seeking political asylum with her son, told broadcaster ARD that more than 10,000 athletes were affected, some as young as 11, and that anyone who was against doping was considered “a danger to the country. And anyone who endangered the country is now in prison.” The 79-year-old Xue said she lost her job with the national gymnastics team after refusing to treat an athlete with doping substances before the 1988 Seoul Olympics. She said she had not felt safe in her home city of Beijing since 2012, when she first made her allegations of doping.

It comes as WADA was accused of sitting on Xue’s claims for more than five years and doing nothing.

Former head of Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission Renee-Anne Shirley said it is frustrating that WADA did not investigate the claims when they were first raised.

“Dr Xue made these accusations in 2012 but Wada did nothing about them then. Guess they only move when ARD TV does a documentary,” she wrote on Twitter.

Xue first started working with China’s national teams in the 1970s.

“In the 1980s and 90s, Chinese athletes on the national teams made extensive use of doping substances,” she told ARD.

“Medals were showered in doping. Gold, silver and bronze. All international medals should be withdrawn.”

WADA said it will examine “whether such a system may have prevailed beyond these decades.” The first step, WADA said, was for its “independent intelligence and investigations team to initiate an investigative process in order to collect and analyse available information in co-ordination with external partners.”

Xue, who continued to work at lower levels after being dismissed from the national team in 1988, said she was only approached afterward when athletes developed problems because of the substances they were given.

“One trainer came to me and said, ‘Doctor Xue, the boys’ breasts keep getting bigger,”’ Xue said. “These boys were about 13 to 14 years old.”

— with AP

Read related topics:China

Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/sport/sports-life/fresh-reports-of-widespread-doping-in-china-tarnishing-10000-athletes/news-story/e174d1e30c2787025fd652df2911e368