DPA
Paris
Olympic and anti-doping officials defended themselves on Tuesday after fresh allegations over Chinese swimmers testing positive for banned substances but being cleared.
The case of 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive in 2021 but were cleared on grounds of contaminated food dominated the build-up to the Paris Olympics.
A New York Times story about another two Chinese swimmers this time testing positive for metandienone has led the World Anti-Doping Agency and International Olympic Committee to further defend the decisions to not impose bans.
“The athletes were all immediately provisionally suspended, pending investigation and remained so until late 2023 when the investigation concluded. Therefore, in the case of the two swimmers, they were suspended for more than one year,” WADA added in a statement.
But testing of hundreds of meat samples from various sources then revealed dozens of positive results for metandienone, WADA added.
“Significantly, both the swimmers provided negative doping control samples in the days before and after the single trace positive.
(China) concluded that the...cases were most likely linked to meat contamination and, in late 2023, closed the cases,” the statement continued.
“WADA thoroughly reviewed the cases in early 2024 with all due scepticism, and concluded that there was no evidence to challenge contaminated meat as the source of the positive tests and therefore decided not to appeal.”
WADA’s defence on the 23 previous swimmers was the same.
China has vehemently denied doping but various athletes’ associations have voiced their unhappiness in Paris.
However, IOC spokesman Mark Adams said Chinese athletes are the most tested in the world and he is confident WADA and the independent International Testing Agency are doing a good job.
