Takeaways From Our Chinese Swimming Investigation

In the primary days of 2021, seven months earlier than the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics, 23 of China’s greatest swimmers examined constructive for a similar banned drug at a home meet.

Chinese antidoping officers investigated and declared the case an uncommon mass-contamination occasion that may very well be traced to the presence of a coronary heart treatment, trimetazidine (TMZ), within the kitchen of a resort the place the swimmers stayed for a New Year’s occasion in late December 2020 and early January 2021.

The World Anti-Doping Agency, the worldwide authority that oversees nationwide drug-testing packages, seemed into the episode however then accepted that concept and allowed China to maintain the outcomes secret.

All the whereas, the swimmers had been allowed to proceed racing, with out suspensions or disqualifications. Some of the swimmers who supplied constructive samples went on to qualify for the Olympics, and to win medals — together with three golds — for China. A couple of are favorites to win once more on the Paris Olympics this yr.

The incident would have remained within the shadows, a secret identified solely to a choose few, had particulars of probably the most curious episodes in swimming not made their method out of the sealed recordsdata of the organizations trusted to maintain sports activities honest.

Here are six takeaways from our report.

The Chinese-led investigation left key questions unanswered.

The international antidoping system works as an honor system. Major nations are charged with guaranteeing their athletes are clear and should belief that others will do the identical. So it was as much as the Chinese doping regulator, often called Chinada, to analyze when 23 athletes examined constructive for a similar drug on the identical home meet.

China assured international regulators that it went to uncommon lengths to analyze. And but, regardless of what was introduced as a painstaking investigation involving scientists, China’s nationwide police and even human check topics, the Chinese didn’t present solutions to 2 elementary questions: How did the TMZ bought into their athletes’ techniques? And how did the drug, a robust prescription coronary heart treatment out there solely in capsule kind, get unfold throughout varied surfaces and containers in a kitchen getting ready meals for a few of China’s greatest athletes?

Global doping officers reacted in another way when a Russian determine skating sensation ingested the identical drug.

When Russia’s antidoping physique cleared the teenage skater Kamila Valieva for testing constructive for a similar drug, TMZ, in 2022, WADA appealed its discovering. It demanded that Court of Arbitration for Sport, the authority that adjudicates disputes in international sports activities, reject Russia’s determination to clear Valieva, who was then nonetheless competing within the Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Valieva stated she had been an unwitting sufferer of contamination, the identical clarification that China supplied for its swimmers. An attraction committee at Russia’s antidoping company even accepted the declare that Valieva had tracked the supply of the low focus of the TMZ in her system to a strawberry dessert ready for her by her grandfather, who stated he had a prescription for the treatment. The court docket summarily dismissed the declare as missing credibility.

WADA took a far completely different stance within the case of the Chinese swimmers. Even although the Chinese failed to search out the supply of the TMZ, WADA stated it “concluded that it was not able to disprove the chance that contamination was the supply of TMZ” and located no cause to attraction China’s determination to take no motion.

Others who examined constructive for comparable medicine obtained at the very least provisional suspensions.

That the Chinese swimmers escaped even a brief suspension is at odds with latest precedents and in addition the everyday steps for dealing with questions in regards to the validity of constructive exams. Even Russia’s Valieva was provisionally barred from competitors, at the very least for a number of hours, earlier than a Russian disciplinary board shortly reinstated her.

Last yr, the United States Anti-Doping Agency suspended the vp of worldwide biking’s governing physique, the 45-year-old former Olympian Katerina Nash, after an out-of-competition check discovered a hint quantity of a banned urge for food stimulant in her system. Nash was later cleared, however solely after she proved she had been dealing with treatment for a sick canine. TMZ is taken into account by antidoping regulators to be in the identical class as that drug.

Antidoping specialists dismissed a key declare made within the Chinese report.

The 61-page report that Chinese officers ready to clear the 23 swimmers features a declare that the low concentrations of TMZ present in all the athletes’ samples was proof they weren’t taking the substance to spice up performances.

But specialists consulted by The New York Times stated that making such a blanket assertion was incorrect, and that even when such low quantities wouldn’t be useful to a swimmer’s efficiency within the second, they might simply as simply counsel that the check was carried out on the tail finish of the excretion interval for a bigger dose of the drug.

WADA stated the low concentrations, coupled with variances in testing outcomes, factored into its determination to not act.

U.S. legislation enforcement is .

Federal investigators are conscious of the episode and have taken some investigative steps to be taught extra. It may appear odd that the F.B.I. or the Justice Department would have curiosity within the failed drug exams of swimmers from one other nation in a contest that happened on the opposite facet of the world. But a legislation handed in 2020 permits U.S. authorities to pursue drug cheats participating in any worldwide competitors, wherever they might be. Critics of the legislation be aware that the statute doesn’t apply to doping schemes within the greatest U.S. sports activities leagues, just like the N.F.L., Major League Baseball or the N.B.A.

An awkward time to check constructive.

At the time of the constructive exams, the Chinese swimmers had been effective tuning their coaching as they equipped for the qualification meet for the Tokyo Olympics, which had been delayed a yr due to the pandemic. For the International Olympic Committee, a doping scandal involving the Chinese, a significant power in world sport, would have been tough to navigate at any time. But in the course of 2021, solely months earlier than the opening of the Summer Games, it might have been a catastrophe. At the identical time, China, battered by coronavirus and topic to a number of the harshest lockdowns on the earth, was persevering with to push ahead with plans to host the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.