NEW YORK, April 20, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Twenty-three Chinese swimmers tested 
positive for a banned substance ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 but were 
allowed to compete after world governing bodies secretly accepted China's 
findings that they had ingested it unknowingly, The New York Times said 
Saturday.

The athletes included nearly half of the swimming team that China sent to 
Japan, with several going on to win medals, including gold, according to the 
report.

Many are expected to be in contention again at the Paris Olympics this 
summer.

The newspaper reported that they tested positive for a prescription heart 
drug that can enhance performance at a domestic meet in late 2020 and the 
first days of 2021.

But it was determined by Chinese anti-doping authorities that they ingested 
the substance unwittingly from tainted food and no action against them was 
warranted.

The Times cited a review of confidential documents and emails, including a 
report compiled by the Chinese anti-doping agency and submitted to its global 
counterpart WADA.

It said WADA and swimming's governing body World Aquatics, which at the time 
was known as FINA, decided not to act due to "a lack of any credible 
evidence" to challenge China's version of events.

WADA was not immediately available for comment to AFP but told the Times it 
opted against pursuing the matter further after "consulting scientists and 
external legal counsel".

"Ultimately, we concluded that there was no concrete basis to challenge the 
asserted contamination," said WADA's senior director of science and medicine 
Olivier Rabin.

World Aquatics confirmed to the Times the cases had been reviewed by a doping 
control board and were subjected to independent expert scrutiny.

"World Aquatics is confident that these AAFs (adverse analytical findings) 
were handled diligently and professionally, and in accordance with all 
applicable anti-doping regulations, including the World Anti-Doping Code," it 
said.

But the United States Anti-Doping Agency said the swimmers should have been 
suspended and publicly identified, calling WADA's lack of action "a 
devastating stab in the back of clean athletes".

The organisation's chief executive Travis T. Tygart claimed he had provided 
WADA with allegations of doping in Chinese swimming multiple times since 
2020.

China's anti-doping authority was not immediately available for comment.

There was no immediate reply from China's swimming association when contacted 
for comment.

Chinese swimming has a chequered doping history, with a rash of cases 
throughout the 1990s. Seven Chinese swimmers tested positive for steroids at 
the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima.

In 1998, swimmer Yuan Yuan was banned after Australian customs officers 
discovered a large stash of human growth hormone in her bags at the World 
Championships in Perth.

More recently, three-time Olympic champion Sun Yang was banned for doping, 
ruling him out of the Tokyo Olympics.