Full 2024 Recap: Chinese Doping Scandal

As we head into 2025, let’s recap one of the longest-running stories of 2024: the fallout from the 23 Chinese Swimmers who tested positive back in 2021.

There have been a lot of updates and new stories and fights that have started as a result of this scandal since the original article on April 20th. Here is a full recap/timeline of everything that happened last year.

• April 20: SwimSwam receives reports that the American women from the silver medal 800 freestyle relay in Tokyo were informed they would be receiving the gold medal due to a doping violation from the gold medal-winning Chinese relay. These reports were later verified to be untrue.
• April 20: At the same time SwimSwam wrote an article on the American relay, an Australian newspaper, The Herald Sun, released an article about 23 Chinese swimmers testing positive for trimetazidine (TMZ) in early 2021. WADA told the Herald Sun that the results were due to contamination not doping.
• April 20: WADA releases a statement confirming the positive tests and stating CHINADA followed the appropriate reporting procedures, and that they agreed with the assessment that the positive results were not the result of intentional doping and were caused by contamination.
• April 20: USADA and WADA begin to spar over this case. Travis Tygart, USADA CEO, releases a statement about USADA’s disappointment in the way the case has been handled, and WADA released another statement condemning his statement and threatening legal action and mentioning previous USADA contamination cases. USADA responded just two hours later condemning the lack of transparency and suspension.
• April 21: Athletes, coaches, and countries begin responding to the allegations with a mix of outrage and support.
• April 22: Complete list of positive athletes comes out. The list includes Tokyo 2020 Olympic medalists Zhang Yufei, Wang Shun, and Qin Haiyang.
• April 22: China responds to the story, calling allegations of widespread doping “fake news”.
• April 23: WADA holds a press conference regarding the situation, using USADA contamination case as precedent. Travis Tygart denies this happened.
• April 25: USADA calls for an independent investigation into WADA and their handling of the case, creating a list of “infractions” committed by WADA.
• April 25: WADA invited independent prosecutor Eric Cottier to investigate their handling of the doping case. Cottier was looking for the answer to two questions. Did WADA show bias? Was their decision to not appeal reasonable?
• April 27: IOC comes out in support of WADA. President Thomas Bach said he has full confidence they handled the case appropriately.
• April 29: WADA releases FAQ about their reasoning for handling the way they did.
• May 2: USADA releases a statement condemning WADA FAQ for “doubling-down on half truths.”
• June 14: WADA releases a statement announcing that three of the 23 positive swimmers had previous positive tests from 2016 and 2017 for a different drug. These tests were also ruled contamination due to the drug being found in meat sources across the country.
• June 26: The United States Congress holds a hearing regarding the issues with WADA and Michael Phelps and Allison Schmitt put WADA on blast while urging for reform.
• June 27: WADA president Witold Banka calls the US out for hypocrisy and “playing politics” after the congressional hearing. Travis Tygart responded with a statement of his own about Banka declining his invitation to attend the hearing and continuing to defend China while not explaining why they didn’t follow the appropriate processes.
• July 4: World Aquatics confirms the United States has launched a federal investigation into WADA.
• July 10: Independent prosecutor Eric Cottier releases findings that WADA showed no bias in their handling of the positive drug tests. Cottier also claimed their decision to not appeal the case further was reasonable.
• July 10: Travis Tygart releases another statement condemning the results and saying there are a lot of questions still unanswered.
• July 18: WADA founding president Dick Pound claims USADA is in violation of the anti-doping code for a federal investigation and they could lose their ability to host future Olympic Games.
• July 24: IOC includes a clause in the contract for the 2034 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics that the host must respect the “supreme authority” of WADA.
• July 24: WADA announces they will be taking USADA to the Independent Compliance Review Committee for the first time
• July 25: United States congressional committee presses WADA president Witold Banka for answers to “unresolved questions”. They release a statement ending with 13 questions they are requesting answers to by August 18th.
• July 30: The New York Times releases a story that two Chinese swimmers tested positive in 2022, and were cleared on the basis of contaminated burgers.
• August 2: US introduces bill that would deny WADA $3.62 million of funding for 2024.
• August 4: 2024 Paris Olympics conclude and seven of the 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive in 2021 win at least one medal. Two won individual medals, Zhang Yufei and Wang Shun.
• August 8: WADA calls out USADA for using confidential informants and allowing positive athletes to compete for information on other athletes who are doping. Tygart claims WADA knew of these cases and is now bringing them up as a “smear” attempt.
• September 6: WADA releases letter calling out USADA for poor testing practices and condemning NCAA testing protocols.
• September 15: Eric Cottier’s final report is released confirming that WADA did nothing wrong. The report also confirms that China did break the rules, but there is nothing to be done about that now.
• November 19: USADA releases a response to WADA’s September 6th letter in the form of two letters from Tobie Smith and Travis Tygart.
• December 4: WADA approves rule and process change recommendations based on Cottier’s final report at their annual meeting. They also discuss the budget for next year with and without the US contribution.
• December 24: NYT releases an article claiming that independent scientists have a lot of questions about the data used to clear the Chinese swimmers. They claim the data does not rule out doping at all.

Here’s to 2025.