Olympic swimmers break silence on Chinese doping scandal as Aussie coach defends controversial winner
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Olympic swimmers have started speaking out about the Chinese doping scandal that has hung over the pool at Paris 2024 as the final day of competition came to a close.
On Monday morning (AEST), China won the men's 4x100m medley relay in 3 minutes, 27.46 seconds, with two of the four members on the team listed among 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive ahead of the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games three years ago.
The swimmers were allowed to compete after a Chinese investigation ruled that they consumed food that had been contaminated.
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Gold medallist Pan Zhanle, of China, poses with silver medallist Kyle Chalmers, of Australia, left, and bronze medallist David Popovici, of Romania, right, after the men's 100-meter freestyle final at Paris 2024. AP
“In sport, one of my favourite quotes I've seen lately is: ‘There’s no point in winning if you don't win it fair,'” British star Adam Peaty said after his foursome wound up fourth to miss the podium.
“I think you know that truth in your heart. Even if you touch and you know you're cheating, you're not winning, right? So, for me, if you've been on that and you have been contaminated twice, I think as an honourable person it means you should be out of the sport. We know sport is not that simple.”
Qin Haiyang and Sun Jiajun were on the winning relay team and were on the list of Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned substance before the Tokyo 2020 but were allowed to compete.
Last week, the New York Times reported that two more Chinese swimmers — Tang Muhan and He Junyi — had tested positive, including one 2024 Olympian, for a banned substance in 2022 but were cleared by China's anti-doping agency, CHINADA, to compete.
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The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) stood by its decision to clear the 23 swimmers who tested positive for a banned heart medication.
“We have to put our trust in WADA,” American swimmer Caeleb Dressel said when asked if he thought WADA's decision was fair.
Cameron McEvoy and Caeleb Dressel compete in the men's 50m freestyle heats at Paris 2024. Getty
“I honestly haven't paid too much attention to it because a lot of that is out of my control. I don't work for WADA, there's nothing I can do.
“I'm trying to race really tough, and they were the better team, and it's as simple as that.”
Dennis Cotterell, the coach of Chinese teenager Pan Zhanle who last week broke the 100m freestyle world record on his way to gold, has come to the defence of the Chinese swimmers.
Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Cotterell responded to claims from former Australian swimmer Brett Hawke that Pan's winning margin from the world's best 100m swimmers was "not humanly possible".
"Brett's specialty is the 50m, this is the 100m," Cotterell told the Herald.
"Biochemists, real researchers, will analyse Pan, like they do every Olympic champion because they want to see what the best are doing. And they will see that he is doing something different.
"It is unique to him. It is idiosyncratic. But Brett can't see it."
After agreeing to take on Zhanle in 2022, Cotterell relocated to Beijing and began working out of the national training centre.
Pan Zhanle celebrates with Kyle Chalmers after winning gold and silver in the men's 100m freestyle final at Paris 2024. Getty
He explained the intense high-performance environment and extreme methods that Chinese athletes are subjected to in pursuit of sporting success.
This included strict measures around food to prevent the athletes from coming into contact with banned substances.
"What they have been subjected to, in their efforts to be clean, Australians wouldn't tolerate it," he said.
WADA and the IOC are feuding with US anti-doping officials, and the FBI, which is investigating the Chinese case thanks to an aggressive law that allows US law enforcement to go after sports doping around the world.
Peaty said he kept his mouth shut during competition, then ultimately decided it was time to share his disappointment and frustrations with what he considers a fractured system.
China earned bronze in the women's 4x100 medley shortly after the men's victory.
Zhang Yufei, another one of the swimmers among the 23, was on the team.
Peaty said there is some anger and frustration.
Adam Peaty poses with his silver medal from the mens 100m breaststroke final. Getty
“I don't want to paint a whole nation or a whole group of people with one brush, I think it's very unfair,” he said.
“But there have been two cases of it and I think it's very disappointing, and I've tried to keep out of the conversations until now for the betterment of the team but I think we're going to use that to our advantage the next four years, whether I'm there or not. I know these boys will carry that.
"We'll see how they do in four years' time, but I think the people that need to do the job will wake up and do the job."
Zhang said when the Olympics began that she and her teammates tested three to four days a week in the months leading up to Paris 2024 and in the wake of the doping scandal involving the 23 Chinese swimmers.
"It is disappointing for them," Cotterell said of the Chinese swimmers who competed in Paris.
"They wonder whether people are against them, whether they are going to hate them. The biggest thing was how it was handled. The kids are totally damned innocent. Most of them never knew about it.
"The reality is [that] Pan has not broken any rules and done nothing wrong.
"He was the world record holder and he improved in what may be a slow pool. After his last training session, I thought he would go 46.6 [seconds]. It was a regular test set and the best he had ever done.
"If you are capable of that time you are going to be a little clear of the opposition unless someone has improved equally."
Cotterell and his partner Bronwyn Henderson ended their professional association with Pan on Sunday.
