Doping: “No credible evidence” of cheating by Chinese swimmers, says World Anti-Doping Agency

“No source has provided credible evidence of wrongdoing” on the part of the 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive in early 2021 for a banned substance, and never sanctioned, the president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) assured Monday. Witold Banka.

The head of the global anti-doping watchdog, widely criticized since the revelation of these positive tests on Saturday by the New York Times and the German channel ARD, reaffirmed his belief in the theory of “environmental contamination” of “innocent athletes”. rather than deliberate and concealed doping.

“If we had to do it again (deal with this matter again, editor's note), we would do exactly the same thing,” declared the Polish leader, castigating without naming the “politically motivated criticisms” - a transparent allusion to the accusations of the boss of the American anti-doping officer, Travis Tygart, colluded between WADA and Beijing to “sweep under the rug” these positive cases.

According to the ARD and NYT investigation, 23 of the best Chinese swimmers tested positive in early 2021 for trimetazidine, a substance banned since 2014 on the grounds that it improves blood circulation, already detected in swimmers. Chinese Sun Yang and the young Russian skater Kamila Valieva.

Of these 23 swimmers, 13 participated in the Tokyo Olympics a few weeks later, in the summer of 2021. And three returned with gold around their necks: Zhang Yufei (200m butterfly and 4x200m freestyle), Wang Shun (200m medley), and Yang Junxuan (4x200m freestyle).

At the time, an investigation into the positive tests was carried out by China's Ministry of Public Security. In March 2021, a report written by the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency (Chinada) concluded that there was food contamination, without any provisional suspension being pronounced between the positive tests and the submission of this report.

“Notified in June 2021”, WADA was unable to send its investigators to China due to health restrictions linked to the Covid-19 pandemic but consulted independent experts “and collected additional scientific information on trimetazine”, she explained on Saturday.

It concluded that it was not "able to refute the possibility of contamination as the source of trimetazidine", and therefore refrained both from appealing the lack of sanctions and from communicating on the case.