The swimming governing bodies in Germany and Canada have given their reaction to the Chinese doping scandal that made headlines less than 48 hours ago.
News broke on Friday night that 23 swimmers from China tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine (TMZ) about seven months before the 2020 (taking place in 2021) Tokyo Olympics. Chinese doping authorities claim that TMZ was ingested unknowingly at a hotel the swimmers stayed at. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) upheld CHINADA’s original decision.
Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, who also oversees sports, said “Just a few months before the Olympic Games, the suspicion the case was ignored or even covered up must be fully investigated as quickly as possible. If there’s such a serious suspicion of doping, then it must be independently investigated by WADA.”
Faeser was not the only voice in Germany to speak up. Germany’s ruling body Deutscher Schwimm-Verband (DSV) sports director Christian Hansmann has said the report, “reminds us that transparency is an indispensable part of the anti-doping fight.” Hansmann continued, “Any lack of it [transparency] not only shakes the trust in individual institutions but also in the credibility of the entire sport.”
Germany’s public broadcaster ARD published a report the same day as the New York Times detailing the investigation between CHINADA and WADA.
Swimming Canada, the governing body of swimming for the country has also released a statement, via X (formerly known as Twitter):
“Swimming Canada is aware of recent reports regarding adverse analytical findings related to another country’s Tokoy 2020 Olympic Team. Swimming Canada is committed to clean sport and the strict enforcement of anti-doping rules to maintain a level playing field. Rules must be applied equitably across high performance sport, and exceptions must be communicated transparently. 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 is in the process of seeking further information from its national and international sport partners such as the Canadian Olympic Committee, World Aquatics, The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport and Sport Canada. It is of paramount important that athletes who train and compete according to the principles of clean sport be respected.”
Statement from Swimming Canada pic.twitter.com/gORdoNbKqZ
— Swimming Canada / Natation Canada (@SwimmingCanada) April 21, 2024
Pretty boring response from Canada. At least their legal made a couple grand off it I guess.
Someone is winning from this
Swimswam really milking everything they can out of this story
It’s a big story. We rely on Swimswam to report. If you don’t like the story feel free to ignore it.
A business in capitalist America doing their job to maximize revenue: 😱
Chinese bot #2
But how does this affect Ice Spices legacy
Chinese bot
this is arguably the biggest scandal in swimming since (sadly) the Chinese doping scandal of ’94 Worlds
I think you mean 1998 Worlds, where Yuan Yuan was caught by customs officials at the Perth airport with enough vials of HgH in her luggage to supply the entire women’s team for the duration of the meet. Or in 1999 when they got popped by surprise at the Asian Games and seven swimmers tested positive for drugs including 1994 World Champions Bin Lu and Yang Aihua.
Since Chinese swimmers arrival at Perth Airport for 1998 World Championship when the Australian customs confiscated a bag full of banned PED and all the Chinese swimmers were promptly returned home.
Indeed. The interesting part? A majority of the Red, White, and Blue believes that a case that was decided in 2021 will somehow be reopened because they don’t like how the case was handled and they definitely don’t like how the case decided. No one country gets to make the rules the rest of the world must follow.
Can’t wait for the countries of Kiribati, Tuvalu, Lesotho, Djibouti to chime in with their thoughts.
This is literally being covered now by every major media outlet on the planet. So the NYT, the BBC and others cover it, but it shouldn’t be majorly covered by an outlet whose wheelhouse is kinda “swimming” and the fact this story seems to be continually evolving by the day for now.
So milking? Kind of more like “covering the biggest story of the year appropriately”.
World Aquatics? If not complicit, then totally incompetent.
World Aquatics protected Zhou Jihong on numerous occasions — she is there VP
Has CHINADA or the Chinese swimming federation released any statements since the news broke?
They’re treating it as a done deal after WADA and World Aquatics cleared them of wrongdoing. No reason to get involved if WADA is taking the heat.
Why would they?
I mean, I’m not expecting them to. But if they had I’d be interested to hear how they are framing this situation.
A situation that happened in 2021. What’s to frame? Just because it went unreported? And, do you think China really cares about what the rest of the world thinks, or that it answers to the rest of the world?
“WADA and World Aquatics have made things clear, and we are extremely disappointed that USA Swimming and USADA are making a concentrated effort to disenfranchise the hard work of Chinese athletes. The Chinese Swimming Federation has shown its dedication to clean sport and have harsh standards for all those who have committed intentional offenses. We thank World Aquatics and WADA for their resolution on this matter.”
The Chinese Swimming Federation has shown a dedication to clean sport…I,ll have to call bullshit on that one.
(This is not a real statement)
They are too smart for that.
There was a statement from Swimming Australia up on Instagram