We explain the journalistic investigation which reveals a doping scandal involving Chinese Olympic medalists

Twenty-three Chinese athletes, some of whom could participate in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, tested positive for a doping substance a few months before the Tokyo Games in 2021. The World Anti-Doping Agency had nevertheless been informed of this.

A survey published on Saturday April 20 by the New York Times and the German channel ARD revealed positive tests concerning 23 Chinese swimmers, seven months before the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games. Chinese authorities cleared these athletes, and the World Anti-Doping Agency reportedly chose not to investigate or intervene. Almost half of the swimming team sent by China to the Tokyo Games are affected, including Zhang Yufei, a double gold medalist, and several other medal-winning athletes. Many of them are expected at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Positive controls for trimetazidine

The 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for the same substance, trimetazidine (nicknamed TMZ), during a swimming meet in Shijiazhuang organized by the Chinese Swimming Association, between December 2020 and January 2021. Trimetazidine is a drug prescribed for people with cardiac pathologies, which helps increase endurance at high cardiac intensity and recovery. A positive test for this banned substance results in an immediate temporary suspension regardless of its concentration in the sample taken, except in very rare cases.

Tested positive but not suspended

Accidental food contamination is one of the only circumstances that can prevent an athlete who tests positive for trimetazidine from being suspended. This is precisely the conclusion of the investigation carried out by the Chinese anti-doping agency (Chinada), at the origin of the positive tests during the meeting. In an internal report, she states that “the swimmers ingested the banned substance without their knowledge and in very small quantities”, not justifying in his opinion any sanction. La Chinada assures that traces of the substance were found in the kitchens of the hotel where the swimmers were staying.

World Aquatics, the new name for the International Swimming Federation, also affirmed its confidence in the monitoring processes, with the organization saying it “satisfied that these adverse analytical findings were handled diligently and professionally, and in accordance with all applicable anti-doping regulations, including the World Anti-Doping Code” nearby New York Times.

The World Anti-Doping Agency in troubled waters

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was notified of these positive tests in June 2021, as evidenced by an exchange of emails between a senior official in world swimming and a Chinese anti-doping representative, “which seemed to indicate that a violation may have occurred and that it should, at a minimum, be publicly acknowledged”underlines the New York Times. WADA could then challenge the Chinese conclusions by appealing. But she invoked “the absence of any credible evidence”. A position that she retained despite the fact that national and international anti-doping officials “have repeatedly provided (…) reports suggesting cover-up and doping by Chinese swimmers”.

The agency claims to have “concluded that there was no concrete basis to contest the alleged contamination”, after consulting with external scientists and legal advisors. According to the media behind the investigation, the Chinese report “contains no evidence of the origin of the substance”.

Several precedents, not the same conclusion

In 2014, the famous Chinese swimmer Sun Yang, double Olympic champion at the London 2012 Olympic Games (400 meters freestyle and 1,500 meters freestyle), tested positive for trimetazidine. He was then suspended for three months. He is currently serving a four-year and three-month suspension for evading a doping test.

Less than a year before the positive tests of the 23 Chinese swimmers, in the run-up to the Beijing 2022 Winter Games, Russian skater Kamila Valieva tested positive for trimetazidine, “relatively low levels of the substance”. The Russian anti-doping agency had drawn the same conclusion as its Chinese counterpart: accidental food contamination. The World Anti-Doping Agency then successfully appealed the decision to exonerate the skater. Kamila Valieva was finally suspended for four years from all international competition on January 29.

Doubts about the credibility of the fight against doping

The case of skater Kamila Valieva had already highlighted the limits of the global anti-doping system, based on the principle of self-regulation. The global agency relies on a network of national agencies that control their athletes. It must intervene when doubt exists about the rigor of the controls or investigations carried out by a national agency, or when one of these entities is suspected of favoring or protecting its athletes.

“All those with dirty hands burying these positive findings and suppressing the voices of courageous whistleblowers must be held accountable to the fullest extent of the rules and the law”declared to New York Times the director general of the American Anti-Doping Agency, Travis T. Tygart, who admitted to providing WADA with allegations of doping in Chinese swimming on several occasions since 2020. Beyond questioning the system based on national agencies, the legitimacy of the world anti-doping agency could be at stake.

The president of the French Swimming Federation, Gilles Sezionale, reacted to these revelations at the microphone of RMC, saying “stunned” and denouncing a “Two weights, two measures”. “Over the same period, we only had one case, in a junior, he was suspended as a precautionary measure. Normally, it is up to the athlete to justify himself, not the other way around. [sous-entendu la fédération]. To whitewash 23 athletes who then performed at the Games is quite unwelcome.”he judges, claiming that “all light be shed”.