PARIS: China was plunged backed into the doping spotlight on Tuesday after the New York Times reported that two swimmers in 2022 had tested positive for a banned steroid but had their provisional bans lifted when the results were blamed on contaminated food.

The latest revelations during the Paris Olympics will increase already high tension between the World Anti-Doping Agency and US anti-doping body over the handling of a case involving 23 Chinese swimmers, who tested positive for trimetazidine (TMZ) weeks before the Tokyo Games.

Those positives were also blamed on contamination, with a Chinese investigation determining that the swimmers were inadvertently exposed to the drug after traces of TMZ, a medication that increases blood flow to the heart, were found in the kitchen of the hotel they were staying in.

A probe by the Chinese anti-doping agency (CHINADA) into the two new positives reported in the New York Times could not determine how the swimmers ingested the steroid but concluded it most likely happened when they ate hamburgers made with tainted beef at a restaurant in Beijing.

One of the two swimmers according to the Times report is competing at the Paris Olympics.

“Not only will the upcoming swimming relay event be tarnished given that China swept this positive test for a hard-core steroid under the rug, but with it coming on the heels of WADA also allowing China to bury 23 positive tests of swimmers, clean athletes’ hopes and dreams have been stolen by these failures,” said USADA in a statement.

“A mountain of evidence shows that the system has failed, WADA has accepted China can play by its own set of rules, and the public is losing faith in the Olympic values. It must change.”

The Times had reported that a member of the International Testing Agency (ITA), who reviewed the case, argued that World Aquatics should have appealed the Chinese decision to clear the swimmers.

A spokesperson for the sport’s governing body said: “It would not be appropriate for World Aquatics to comment on this case in detail, but World Aquatics can confirm that it never received any recommendation from the ITA to appeal the case.”

The paper cited the ITA as denying they had made such a recommendation.

In a statement WADA said that on notification of the positive tests the athletes were immediately provisionally suspended until late 2023 when the investigation concluded.

WADA added that along with the two swimmers, a BMX athlete and a shooter, who are not on the China team in Paris, tested positive for the same banned substance, metandienone, in late 2022 and early 2023, in different locations at different times.

After reviewing the cases WADA concluded there was no evidence to challenge contaminated meat as the source of the positive tests and decided not to appeal to sport’s highest court CAS.

World Aquatics, the International Shooting Sport Federation and cycling’s governing body the UCI, also determined there were no grounds to appeal the decision.

With a spike in the number of contamination cases, WADA said it has this year initiated an investigation to assess the circumstances, scale and risk of the problem.

“Based on the number of cases, clearly there is an issue of contamination in several countries around the world,” said WADA. “WADA is generally concerned about the number of cases that are being closed without sanction when it is not possible to challenge the contamination theory successfully before CAS.

“Apart from China, in particular, there have been several of these cases in the United States in the past few months alone, where highly intricate contamination scenarios were accepted.”

American sprinter Erriyon Knighton, the 200 metres world championship silver medallist, tested positive for the banned metabolite trenbolone in March in an out-of-competition drug test.

An independent arbitrator ruled in June that the positive test was more likely than not caused by consuming meat contaminated with trenbolone, a known livestock growth promoter used legally in beef cattle produced in and exported to the United States.

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2024