WADA stands by decision to clear Chinese swimmers for Tokyo Olympics,最新 プロ 野球 情報 citing contaminated samples

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

April 23, 2024 at 12:15 JST

• Share
• Tweet list

• Print

A Chinese flag is unfurled on the podium of a swimming event final at the 2020 Summer Olympics, on July 29, 2021, in Tokyo. (AP Photo)

GENEVA--The World Anti-Doping Agency said after reviewing various media reports that it stands by its decision to clear 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned heart medication before the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

WADA addressed questions at a news conference on Monday and acknowledged there would be skepticism about details of the case after the release on Sunday of a documentary by German broadcaster ARD.

In an earlier statement following initial newspaper reports led by the New York Times, WADA said it agreed with Chinese authorities and ruled the swimmers’ samples were contaminated.

The contamination was accepted to have come from spice containers in the kitchen of a hotel where some of the Chinese team stayed for a national meet in January 2021

Chinese authorities handling the case after testing the swimmers in January 2021 cleared them without any penalties and WADA accepted their conclusions. Sending independent investigators to China that year was not feasible during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We had no credible way to disprove the contamination theory,” WADA prosecutor Ross Wenzel told reporters in an online call on Monday, adding there was no political pressure to drop the case.

Wenzel detailed a timeline from January to June 2021 for the case to be resolved. That was just weeks before the Tokyo Olympics opened, and with the Beijing Winter Games approaching in February 2022 that was a personal project for Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Chinese swimmers went on to win three gold medals in Tokyo, where the United States took silver in two of those races and Britain was second in the other.

“Following WADA’s review of the documentary, the agency still stands firmly by the results of its scientific investigation and legal decision concerning the case,” WADA said in the statement before putting forward its senior managers up for questioning on Monday

WADA said based on available scientific evidence and intelligence, “which was gathered, assessed and tested by experts in the pharmacology of trimetazidine (TMZ); and, by anti-doping experts,” it had no basis under the global anti-doping code to challenge the Chinese agency’s findings of environmental contamination.

The drug at the center of this case was also the medication that led to the suspension of Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva at the Winter Olympics in Beijing in 2022.

In that case, WADA moved to appeal and sought sanctions for Valieva after Russian anti-doping authorities judged she was not to blame.

China’s star swimmer Sun Yang also tested positive for TMZ and served a three-month ban in 2014. That case also was kept quiet by Chinese and swim authorities and provoked criticism from opponents when he won at the world championships the next year. Sun was later banned for breaking doping rules in a high-profile case WADA did pursue.

Dismissing weekend suggestions WADA was “soft on Chinese athletes,” agency president Witold Bańka reminded reporters it had been “vigorously pursuing justice” in the Sun case. A ban of more than four years for three-time Olympic champion Sun expires next month.

WADA said its position in the latest Chinese case was also accepted by World Aquatics, which governs international swimming.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin on Monday described the media reports as “disinformation and a misrepresentation,” and affirmed WADA’s decision.

Wang said China’s anti-doping authorities investigated the incident and found the positive results were due to “the ingestion of contaminated food by the relevant athletes without knowledge of the contaminated food, and the Chinese swimmers involved were not at fault or negligent, which did not constitute a doping violation.”

However, anti-doping rules in Olympic sports do require a provisional suspension — which the Chinese swimmers avoided from their national anti-doping agency — when athletes test positive for TMZ, except if contamination is suspected.

“I want to emphasize,” Wang said, “that the Chinese government has maintained a firm stance of zero tolerance towards doping, strictly abides by the WADA code, resolutely safeguards the physical and mental health of athletes, maintains fair play in sports competitions, and contributes positively to the global efforts in the crackdown on doping.”

China has given almost $2 million to WADA in recent years above its expected payments as a national government.

The 30-member Chinese swim team won six medals in Tokyo, including three golds. Zhang Yufei won the women’s 200 meters butterfly ahead of Regan Smith of the United States, and silver in the 100 butterfly where American Torri Huske was out of the medals in fourth.

Zhang and Yang Junxuan were part of the 4x200 freestyle relay team that took gold, edging the Americans including seven-time Olympic champion Katie Ledecky. Canada was fourth.

“Doping can deprive clean athletes of hard-earned moments they deserve such as standing on the podium and the life-changing opportunities that may follow,” Swimming Canada said Sunday in a statement.

In the men’s 200 medley in Tokyo, Wang Shun beat silver medalist Duncan Scott, the British star who refused to share a medal podium with Sun Yang at the 2019 world championships.

Many of the athletes still compete for China and are expected to swim at the Paris Olympics that start in July.

WADA said it was given a tip by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency as early as 2020 — before this case arose — about allegations of doping cover-ups in China but the USADA never followed up with evidence.

USADA CEO Travis Tygart called the news of the Chinese positive tests “crushing.”

“It’s even more devastating to learn the World Anti-Doping Agency and the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency secretly, until now, swept these positives under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world,” Tygart said.

The case underscores what many view as a flaw in the global anti-doping system — that a country’s own anti-doping organization is often the first line of defense in catching drug cheats and those organizations have different levels of motivation to fulfil that role.

• ·映画「アンダーニンジャ」にムロツヨシ、木南晴夏、シソンヌ長谷川、佐藤二朗（動画あり / コメントあり）
• ·「TSUYOSHI 誰も勝てない、アイツには」作者2人の初トークイベント＆お渡し会
• ·「殺し屋 Re starting over」元殺し屋と気弱男子の入れ替わりピュアBL（試し読みあり）
• ·力石政法がＩＢＦ王者の兄・矢吹正道との「兄弟同時世界王者」へ前哨戦で豪快ＫＯ勝利　大橋秀行会長「来年必ず世界戦やる」と後押し約束
• ·暖カイ炉が描く、獣人たちの狂気に満ちた物語がフルカラーで書籍化　描き下ろし20P超
• ·「ベルセルク」フェムトの禍々しいスタチュー、ボーナス版に真紅のベヘリット付属
• ·「今日の閣下はどなたですか？」多重人格の公爵と婚約、相手は1人なのに逆ハーレム状態
• ·高梨沙羅「だからこそ、五輪で勝ちたい」　パリで五輪初観戦「こんなに大勢の人の心を動かせるものってない」
• ·森且行、「約束のオーバル～劇場版」完成披露イベントに出席「まさか全国の映画館でやるなんて」穂坂監督は続編に意欲！？
• ·浜名湖のサヨリ釣りで大興奮…３０尾以上、３０センチ超える大物も…釣りガール三浦愛の愛ＬＯＶＥフィッシング
• ·「誰の選挙か分からなくなる」“王国”継いだ二階俊博氏三男、父の応援演説見送りへ
• ·見捨てられた令嬢の大逆転シンデレラファンタジー「不遇令嬢とひきこもり魔法使い」（試し読みあり）
• ·「姫ちゃんのリボン」などりぼん作品が豆本＆めじるしアクセに、ガシャポンで販売
• ·「家庭教師ヒットマンREBORN!」のオンラインショップ、和モダンなグッズを受注販売
• ·【競輪】村田祐樹が全プロ活躍で初日特選１０Ｒに登場～Ｇ１弥彦・寬仁親王牌
• ·ＩＷＧＰ世界新王者ザック・セイバーＪｒ．、ＳＡＮＡＤＡと初防衛決定…１０・２１ロンドン