There are latest reports that more Chinese swimmers have been cleared of doping suspicions due to food contamination, one of whom is participating in the Paris Olympics.

 

In another incident involving a doping investigation into 23 Chinese swimmers in April, Tang Muhan and He Junyi tested positive for drugs after eating French fries, Coke and hamburgers at a Beijing restaurant in October 2022, according to US media reports.

The Chinese Anti-Doping Agency (Chinada) subsequently ruled that the steroid came from contaminated meat in the burgers and declared the pair clean of doping.WADA confirmed that the two swimmers tested positive in October 2022 doping tests, but said it was part of more positive results from meat contamination tests in China.

WADA said: "China Anti-Doping Agency also analyzed the athletes' nutritional supplements and conducted hair tests, which returned negative results. It is worth noting that in the days before and after the single positive drug test, both swimmers provided negative doping test samples."

However, the United States Anti-Doping Agency reacted angrily to the announcement and accused WADA of allowing China to "compete under a different set of rules to sway the results in their favour".

 

 

“There is overwhelming evidence that the system is broken, that WADA has accepted that China can play by its own rules and that the public has lost faith in Olympic values,” said Travis Tygart, chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency.

WADA hit back by accusing the United States of trying to smear its reputation by suggesting wrongdoing. “The politicisation of swimming in China continues with recent attempts by the US media to suggest wrongdoing by WADA and the wider anti-doping community,” the agency said in a statement.

WADA continued to fight back, "This incident once again raises the wider issue of contamination, particularly food contamination. Based on the number of cases, it is clear that several other countries in the world have contamination problems. In addition to China, there have been several such cases in the United States in the past few months alone, all of which have admitted highly complex contamination situations. The ongoing review of the World Anti-Doping Code and international standards for clean sport will provide an opportunity for us to consider how to address this ongoing problem."