The Chinese swimming team was dominant at the Tokyo Olympic Games, winning six medals in total including three gold medals. But it sounds like the country is now facing a bit of a scandal after more than 20 athletes were allowed to compete in the Olympics despite testing positive for a banned substance.
According to a bombshell report from Michael S. Schmidt and Tariq Panja of the New York Times, 23 different Chinese swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine (TMZ) – a banned substance found in heart medication – but were allowed to compete and win medals anyway.
“Twenty-three top Chinese swimmers tested positive for the same powerful banned substance seven months before the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021 but were allowed to escape public scrutiny and continue to compete after top Chinese officials secretly cleared them of doping and the global authority charged with policing drugs in sports chose not to intervene,” the New York Times reported this week.
“Several of the athletes who tested positive — including nearly half of the swimming team that China sent to the Tokyo Games — went on to win medals, including three golds. Many still compete for China and several, including the two-time gold medalist Zhang Yufei, are expected to contend for medals again at this year’s Summer Games in Paris.”
Obviously, this is a massive scandal, and it led to a lot of reactions on social media.
This is sadly not surprising.
In elite sport, everyone knows the countries/groups/teams you can't trust.
And unfortunately, there are people in organizations that are supposed to do the right thing, that you can't trust either. https://t.co/qtN8H9Crol
— Steve Magness (@stevemagness) April 20, 2024
“This appears to be a devastating stab in the back of clean athletes and a deep betrayal of all the athletes who compete fairly and follow the rules".
This is brutal. And a huge Indictment of WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency. And what about Paris Olympic? https://t.co/j0dkM36u8S
— Catherine McKenna (@cathmckenna) April 20, 2024
Less than 100 days til Paris. Will be interesting to see how this is handled. https://t.co/ZZJ2QA4Cxh
— Dana O'Neil (@DanaONeilWriter) April 20, 2024
I still can’t get over this. China was about to host the Winter Olympics the very next year. This would have been a huge embarrassment and caused who knows what else kind of problems. World Aquatics and WADA caved to this nonsense and allowed a thoroughly corrupted swimming … https://t.co/rDP7tYrstb
— Lawg0d (parody) (@shoshpd) April 20, 2024
The worst part is the coverup from WADA! They’re all corrupt
— 🦦Marie 🦥 (@NoWay7790) April 20, 2024
The investigation highlights concerning gaps in doping control measures and raises questions about the integrity of competitive sports.
— Nadir Sameed (@NadirSameed) April 20, 2024
It’s clear that people are not happy about this news.
