Olympics-WADA says 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive before Tokyo Games but it accepted contamination finding (updated)

CammSys

20/04/2024 12:08

(Adds background)
       April 20 (Reuters) - The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)
confirmed reports on Saturday that 23 Chinese swimmers had
tested positive for a banned drug before the 2020 Tokyo
Olympics, but it accepted the country's findings that this was
due to substance contamination.
    Multiple media reports said the swimmers tested positive for
trimetazidine (TMZ), which is found in heart medication, months
before the COVID-delayed Games began in the Japanese capital in
July 2021.
    CHINADA, China's anti-doping agency, and the Chinese
Swimming Association did not immediately respond to Reuters'
requests for comment.
    WADA said it was notified in June 2021 of CHINADA's decision
to accept that the swimmers returned adverse analytical
findings, or AAFs, after inadvertently being exposed to the drug
through contamination.
    The global anti-doping body, which has the authority to
appeal the rulings of national doping agencies, said it reviewed
the decision and consulted scientific experts and external legal
counsel to test the contamination theory presented by CHINADA.
    "WADA ultimately concluded that it was not in a position to
disprove the possibility that contamination was the source of
TMZ and it was compatible with the analytical data in the file,"
the anti-doping body said in a statement.
    "WADA also concluded that ... the athletes would be held to
have no fault or negligence. As such, and based on the advice of
external counsel, WADA considered an appeal was not warranted."
    China's 30-member swimming team won six medals at the Tokyo
Games, including three golds.
    Without mitigating circumstances, athletes who fail doping
tests are usually subject to bans of two to four years for a
first offence and life for a second. 
    World Aquatics, the sport's global body formerly known as
FINA, said it was confident the positive tests were handled
"diligently and professionally."
    "With regard to the AAFs ... they were carefully considered
by the FINA Doping Control Review Board," it added. "Materials
relating to the source of the AAFs were subject to independent
expert scrutiny retained by FINA.
    "World Aquatics is confident that these AAFs were handled
diligently and professionally, and in accordance with applicable
anti-doping regulations, including the WADA Code."
    News of the AAFs could lead to tighter scrutiny of China
before this year's Paris Olympics, where the Asian country is
expected to contend for medals alongside powerhouses the United
States and Australia.
    One of the most high-profile cases involving TMZ is that of
China's Olympic gold medalist Sun Yang, who was suspended for
three months in 2014 after testing positive for the drug. Sun
said he was prescribed the drug to treat chest pain.
    He is currently serving a separate doping ban.
    Prior to the 2008 Beijing Games, a number of Chinese
swimmers have been involved in doping cases. 
    In 1994, seven Chinese swimmers tested positive for
dihydrotestosterone at the Hiroshima Asian Games.
    Four years later four Chinese swimmers failed
pre-competition testing for the diuretic triamterene before the
world championships in Perth, and Yuan Yuan was disqualified
from Perth after being caught with 13 vials of muscle-building
human growth hormone at Sydney airport. She was banned for four
years and her coach was banned for 15 years.
    In 2003, Li Ning was suspended for two years and her coach
was banned for life after a positive test for banned steroid
testosterone.
    Five years later, backstroke swimmer Ouyang Kunpeng and his
coach were banned for life after a positive test for an illegal
substance.

 (Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter
Rutherford and Hugh Lawson
)
 ((Shrivathsa.Sridhar@thomsonreuters.com;))