Before the Paris Olympics, Gao Zhidan, president of the Chinese Olympic Committee, publicly pledged that all Chinese athletes would respect and honor anti-doping regulations, adhere to strict doping control routines, and ensure their medals are won fairly and cleanly. He stated that the Chinese athletes would demonstrate their skills at their most competitive level and use the occasion to promote sportsmanship, fair play, and China’s vibrant image to the world.
Despite this pledge, the Chinese swimmers were subjected to severe harassment from the outset by their American competitors. The New York Times (NYT) chose an opportune moment to publish an article accusing the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) of siding with the Chinese swimmers by allowing some of them who had tested positive for a banned substance to compete at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
WADA responded that their investigation had confirmed that the banned substance came from contaminated food, and an independent Swiss prosecutor confirmed the result of the investigation. Yet, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) publicly criticized WADA for siding with China.
The US Congress passed a law allowing the FBI to investigate WADA and any athletes anywhere in the world in competition with US athletes for any alleged doping cases, which was a clear breach of international law on extraterritorial enforcement. In response, WADA stated that it was considering suing USADA for libel. The China Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) accused the NYT of politicizing doping issues and said it was trying to affect the mental state of Chinese athletes and weaken their competitive abilities.
Due to the US political pressure, WADA had conducted many more doping tests on Chinese swimmers, significantly more than on any US and Australian swimmers. In 2022, WADA conducted 19,228 doping tests on Chinese athletes, with a 0.2 percent violation rate, whereas US athletes received only 6,782 doping tests with a 1.2 percent violation rate. However, those positive doping cases of US athletes were never made public. On average, each Chinese swimmer has been tested 21 times since the beginning of the year, four times more than any US swimmer. Some Chinese swimmers were subjected to as many as seven doping tests in a single day in the Olympic village. They were often woken up at 5 am to queue for the test, causing severe disruption to their daily rest. When the Chinese swimmers came to the pool for the competitions, they were booed by Western spectators, adding to their pre-race pressure.
Despite all the intimidation, rumors, discrimination, and isolation, the Chinese swimmers clinched the two most prestigious gold medals in swimming, together with three silvers and seven bronzes. Additionally, 19-year-old Pan Zhanle’s record-breaking victory in the men’s 100-meter freestyle in 46.4 seconds made him the fastest recorded swimmer in history. China’s gold medal in the men’s 4x100m medley relay made them the fastest all-round swimming team in the world, beating the runner-up US team by more than half a second, and breaking the US’ run of 10 successive gold medals in this event, dating back to the Los Angeles 1984 Games.
As expected, the outstanding performance of the Chinese swimmers provoked jealousy and unfair accusations from their Western rivals. An Australian swimming commentator and coach said Pan’s record-breaking victory in the Olympic 100m freestyle was “not humanly possible”, implying, without any evidence, that Pan had doped. He should have known that Pan had been tested 29 times since last year and had passed all the tests.
The unsubstantiated racist comments drew ridicule on social media in China, with one stating, “It seems like you Australians, Americans, and Europeans are prejudiced when it’s not you who succeed with the extraordinary!” It is a typical reaction of sour grapes that proliferated during the Olympics.
In a post-match interview, gold medalist Pan hit out at his disrespectful American and Australian rivals. He said the US swimmers ignored his friendly greeting at the pool and during training, and they purposely splashed water directly on his coach. He said he felt that they were looking down on him, but he was pleased that he had had the last laugh.
These controversies should push WADA to enhance its transparency. A widely circulated report on social media revealed a blatant loophole in doping regulations. WADA seems to have an internal rule that provides exemptions for athletes suffering from injuries.
If, with a doctor’s certificate, the medication needed for the treatment of injuries contains stimulants, it can be reported to WADA. If approved, the athlete can legally use such drugs. To “protect the privacy of athletes”, these exemptions are not made public.
This has opened the door for many athletes to legally dope themselves under doctor’s orders. It was revealed in the report that in 2016, the Russian hacker “Magic Bear” accessed the WADA database and found that in 2015 alone, with the assistance of USADA, 653 American athletes applied for immunity, of which 402 were granted, an approval rate of over 60 percent. Swimming, cycling, athletics, triathlon, and skiing received the most medical exemption applications. Fewer than 10 Chinese athletes were granted immunity. In the interests of fair competition, WADA should publish its immunity list and subject it to public scrutiny.
Then came the reports revealing that the US sprinting star Erriyon Knighton tested positive for the performance enhancer trenbolone, a banned steroid, during an out-of-competition test on March 26. But the USADA decided, without notice or referral to WADA as should have been standard procedure, that Knighton would not be ruled ineligible, claiming that the athlete’s positive result for trenbolone was caused by eating contaminated meat, and allowed him to eventually represent the US at the Paris Olympics, where he qualified for the men’s 200m semifinals.
On Tuesday, CHINADA issued a statement, quoting the Knighton case and accusing USADA of embracing double standards when dealing with doping cases of athletes from the US and other countries, including Chinese swimmers. CHINADA urged the US to stop fabricating false narratives, politicizing anti-doping and manipulating public perception against Chinese swimmers. The NYT made a big issue of the unsubstantiated Chinese doping case in 2021 and yet was completely silent on their local athlete’s doping, reflecting its blatant bias.
The statement added that the US has turned a blind eye to its long history of doping but is obsessed with “cross-border jurisdiction” and imposing sanctions against other countries. The accusations and attacks on China and other countries seem to deflect attention from the serious flaws in its anti-doping efforts.
CHINADA issued a further statement on Thursday calling for intensified testing of US track and field athletes and efforts to rebuild global trust in fair competition, after specifics of Knighton’s positive test were widely reported by global media.
In the same week, WADA issued a stern rebuke to USADA following revelations by Reuters on Wednesday that exposed a scheme to allow US athletes who had committed doping violations to compete without sanctions for years, which is a blatant violation of the World Anti-Doping Code and USADA's own regulations. WADA highlighted the severity of the allegations, which suggested that USADA permitted doped athletes to compete, including in Olympic qualifier events, without publishing the athletes' anti-doping rule violations or imposing any sanctions. WADA's investigation has so far identified at least three cases in which athletes who had committed serious anti-doping violations were allowed by USADA to continue competing for years, greatly undermining the fairness and integrity of competitions in which clean athletes unknowingly competed against those who had been allowed to cheat. WADA criticized USADA's apparent double standards in enforcing anti-doping rules and called into question whether USADA's board of directors or the US Congress were aware of these practices.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has warned the US to stop interfering with WADA. Otherwise, the IOC may withdraw the US’ right to host the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and the Salt Lake City 2034 Winter Olympics. Indeed, all athletes attending the next Olympics should be warned that they can be subject to FBI investigation and prosecution for suspected doping, and this may trigger a massive boycott if the US Congress fails to repeal this draconian law.
The controversies have shown how international politics and the US-China conflict have affected sports, and how the US and the Western world have discriminated against China. However, their efforts have been in vain. The Chinese swimmers shone through at the Olympics and proved they are a force to be reckoned with, ending the long-standing dominance of Australians, Europeans, and Americans in swimming. The most heartwarming scene was the Chinese crowd singing their national anthem loudly during the gold medal ceremonies, demonstrating their national unity and patriotism to the world.
Warm congratulations should also go to Siobhan Haughey for clinching two more Olympic swimming bronze medals for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Her outstanding performance makes us all proud. She has now secured four Olympic medals, the highest for a Hong Kong athlete.
The author is an honorary fellow of HKU Space and Hong Kong Metropolitan University and an honorary advisor of the China Hong Kong Squash Association.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
