With a major Chinese swimming doping controversy in the spotlight ahead of Olympic competition, several organizing bodies and athletes are taking shots at one another this week in Paris.
A key member of the Australian swim team spoke out Thursday, questioning the system put in place by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Twenty-three Chinese swimmers tested positive before the Tokyo Olympics, but the country’s doping agency claimed it was from food contamination, an explanation accepted by WADA.
The positive tests didn’t become public knowledge until reporting by the New York Times and German broadcaster ARD earlier this year.
“I absolutely believe in clean sport and I hope that this is clean Games,” Australia’s Zac Stubblety-Cook, who won gold in the 200-metre breaststroke in Tokyo, said Thursday, per The Guardian. “It’s obviously disappointing to hear that news and hear about the pre-Tokyo 23 athletes testing positive, some multiple times. And for me racing someone that was one of those athletes, or finding out he was one of those athletes, was disappointing.
“I think it’s less about what country they came from and more about the system and how the system ultimately, it feels like it’s failed. That’s the truth. Obviously, I can have all the opinions, but I am now focused on what I can control going into these games — being a clean athlete and looking to that, and hoping that my competitors are doing the same.”
China’s Qin Haiyang, the reigning world champion in the 200-metre breaststroke, is among those who tested positive before the 2021 Tokyo meet.
Eleven of the 23 swimmers to test positive before Tokyo are scheduled to compete in Paris.
On Wednesday, the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2034 Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City, but not before ripping the U.S. for its criticism of WADA.
The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has been vocal in its criticism of WADA over the Chinese swimmers’ case.
“I’m sorry for you, and for us, that this issue arose now,” IOC president Thomas Bach told Salt Lake’s bid committee, per USA Today.
Reuters reported Wednesday that WADA is taking the U.S. agency to the Independent Compliance Review Committee next month.
A U.S. House of Representatives committee previously asked the Department of Justice to investigate the Chinese doping case.
WADA president Witold Banka isn’t apologizing for anything his organization has done.
“Everything that I said about the U.S. anti-doping system and the role of USADA, I did in a very calm way,” he said Thursday at a news conference, per AFP.
“Our expectations to our stakeholders are to follow the rules. Our role is to make sure that our stakeholders are following our regulations, rules, and have national legislation in accordance with our world anti-doping code.”
In the pool, meanwhile, Australia’s swimmers are trying to focus on the task at hand.
“Now that we’re getting into the Games period, your energy is purely focused on the things that you can control, and your performance,” Bronte Campbell said. “While that news when it came out was incredibly disappointing and I think incredibly frustrating, there’s nothing we can do about it two days before an Olympic Games. What we can control is the next two days, how we spend our time, and then once we start racing how that goes.”
