World Aquatics revealed earlier this month that Chinese athletes were being tested for banned substances more frequently than others in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics, and on Tuesday the global governing body released the full testing data for all aquatics athletes thus far in 2024.
World Aquatics reports that it has conducted a total of 2,145 anti-doping tests—organized by the International Testing Agency (ITA)—on athletes participating in the Olympic Games since January 1. Including other anti-doping organizations, 4,774 tests have been taken, meaning aquatics athletes competing in Paris have been tested an average of 3.4 times.
Relative to the lead-up to the 2016 Olympics in Rio and the 2021 Games in Tokyo, the amount of anti-doping tests conducted has seen a notable increase.
Note that the table below shows the total number of tests conducted on aquatics athletes, not solely those competing at the Olympic Games.
| Olympic Games Edition | Tests From Jan. 1 Until Start of Olympics (World Aquatics) | In-Competition tests | Out-of-Competition Tests |
Athletes Tested
|
| Rio 2016 | 2648 | 487 | 2161 | 1041 |
| Tokyo 2020 | 2002 | 208 | 1794 | 876 |
| Paris 2024 | 2958 | 702 | 2256 | 1283 |
Following the Chinese doping scandal that came to light in April, World Aquatics reports that Chinese swimmers were the most tested athletes by a wide margin this year.
Since January 1, the 31 swimmers who will represent China at the Paris Olympics have each been tested at least 10 times by World Aquatics, and on average each swimmer has been tested 13 times (not including tests from other organizations).
“World Aquatics conducted a total of 418 tests through this program. All Chinese swimmers have been tested out-of-competition at least eight times by World Aquatics, independently of any other anti-doping organization and using a WADA-accredited laboratory based in Europe.
“Including tests conducted by other anti-doping organizations, Chinese swimmers have been tested on average 21 times since 1 January 2024. Australian swimmers have been tested an average of four times in the same period, and USA swimmers an average of six times.”
The World Aquatics Integrity Unit has published all of the testing statistics for aquatics athletes, showing that, including tests carried out by organizations outside of World Aquatics, Chinese swimmers competing at the Olympics have been tested an average of 21 times this year. That’s compared to six times on average for the American team and four times for the Australian team.
Multi-time world champion and world record holder Qin Haiyang has been tested 21 times in 2024, while defending Olympic champions Wang Shun and Zhang Yufei have received 22 and 19 total tests, respectively.
Testing Statistics – Eight Largest NOC Swimming Delegations In Paris
| NOC | Number of Swimmers |
Average Tests per Swimmer
|
| USA | 46 | 6 |
| AUS | 41 | 4 |
| ITA | 36 | 5 |
| CHN | 31 | 21 |
| GBR | 30 | 4 |
| FRA | 29 | 4 |
| CAN | 28 | 4 |
| JPN | 27 | 4 |
| GER | 25 | 4 |
| HUN | 21 | 5 |
“It is our top priority that our athletes compete in a clean and fair competition,” said Husain Al-Musallam, President of World Aquatics.
“Our rigorous testing program reflects our dedication to upholding the highest standards of integrity in aquatic sports and we are grateful for the ITA’s partnership in conducting it.”
The Chinese team nutritionist Yu Liang reported that the increased testing on Chinese swimmers continued upon their arrival in Paris, posting on social media (now deleted) that the 31 athletes had been tested almost 200 times during their first 10 days.
If China performs poorly we will all know why. I hope they also tested Dirty Jack.
I have no sympathy. They got to keep gold medals from swimmers who were clean in Tokyo.
What proof were they dirty? This smear campaign is just a dirty way to psyche them out without any evidence needed.
This is not fare ! We all now that doping is unfortunately spread world wide and US athletes as well as GB and Aussies should all be tested as regressively as the Chinese. It has been always politicized and never fare.
All too often I’ve seen Olympic medal winners found guilty years later as lab testing technology gets more advanced and urine/blood samples are re-tested.
So forgive me of being sceptical of negative test results.
So when you see a gold winning performance at the Olympics, give it 5 years.
Please provide details of these negative re-tests. Maybe we will see more of this, now that the Olympic samples are being stored for 10 years.
The scandal alone is enough to give them image of doping. But that ain’t right if there’s zero fair evidence of cheating. And they don’t need to cheat to win. People Just don’t want to believe it’s possible for Chinese swimmers to be strong and why they test them so often hoping to find something in their system. But you can do all the tests you want. They are not needing to dope when they have money for proper training and best coaches. Unless there’s proof, people need to chill out seriously.
The US is determined to hype the case only to hype up Chinese elite swimmers for the Olympics.
Final competition results speak, regardless of good or bad, all parties concerned have to behave,or say react, in compliance with IOC standards.
We’ll wait and see which country will be getting the upper hand during and after the Olympics.
I suspect they are trying to psyche out the Chinese swimmers. They know there is no evidence but merely a stink alone can be enough to sabotage them. I find that tactic dirty and not fit for sportsmanship. It’s innocent until proven guilty and not make stinks without evidence. What US is doing is crossing the line.
I honestly don’t trust any of these results. What a joke.
I’m not sure what WADA is hoping to achieve by making the tests public. The question was never whether the athletes were tested or not.
The Chinese athletes were actually tested but the results were hidden from the public and those athletes still allowed to compete unfairly.
By the way, believe them if they made the test result public. For all I know there are some positive results that have been swept under the rug ala Tokyo.
For all we know, the entirety of Team USA has positive tests that have been swept under the carpet as well.
explain
by the phrase ‘results hidden from the public’ do you mean ‘China self reported’.
it’s the shame of usa who will get nothing in the pool by any ugly ways
How many times did they test Sun. And he got away with it. Word is two Chinese have tested positive. Why are they still in Paris?
“Hey I just made up this thing that didn’t happen. Why isn’t anyone doing anything about it?”
Connor Dwyer also got away with it. And who were his training partners?
Amy Van Dyken and Marion Jones got away with it.
Why were they in Sydney 2000?
Qin Haiyang, Wang Shun, Zhang Yufei got away with it too. I believe Qin and Zhang got caught doping twice but it was brushed away due to “contamination”.
Don’t make up such falsehoods. WADA doesn’t have any bias and they didn’t rule any Chinese as doping. If they had been ruled as intentionally doping, obviously they wouldn’t be allowed in the Olympics. Also Sun isn’t even competing in Paris. And reason he never lost any Olympic and World championship medals because all of his extensive testing came back negative. And they do get tested very frequently for pro athletes.
You sure about that?
Chinese team tested positive for T(M)(Z) – contamination
Two refugee athletes tested positive T(M)(Z) – ban
What Sun did was not good but I think it was kinda sad. He didn’t get banned because he doped, he got banned because he broke testing rules, and he suspension prior did not help his case.. https://www.sportsintegrityinitiative.com/there-is-more-to-the-sun-yang-case-than-racist-tweets/
The irony was that Sun got tested plenty of times in the days beforehand during the Asian games. (All came back negative) And also a lot soon after the incident. And he also had the option to miss the testing window (once a year) without severe penalty. It seems pretty likely given that context, he wasn’t doping given the timing but people refused to give him the benefit of the doubt.
That’s not the same as doping. If they were guilty of doping or weren’t following the rules then WADA would have punished it. They clearly have scientific expertise here.
And when WADA cleared them, you have people unable to accept due process simply because they weren’t getting what they hoped for.
Unfortunately it’s people without scientific expertise and purely political reasons, that are trying to push allegations that are baseless.
Thanks Steven, before your post I was skeptical about WADA, but now I will sleep much better
I sleep better when people don’t politicise sports without real evidence. Anc WADA shouldn’t be political or take sides based on politics.
If they do punish China and have real proof. I would support them
If however they investigate and do not think it’s fair to punish those Chinese swimmers as it’s possible that contamination is a real issue and it’s also too small amount to make any real difference. Then I will respect that too.
What I don’t respect is how some people in the comments are way too political and without substantial evidence or scientific expertise, are complaining about something that they don’t understand and merely dislike. That ain’t cool.