WADA confirms it cleared Chinese swimmers to compete at Tokyo Games citing contaminated samples
Associated PressSYDNEY — The world’s top anti-doping regulator says 23 Chinese swimmers were cleared to compete at the Tokyo Olympics despite testing positive for a banned heart medication because it agreed with Chinese authorities and ruled that their samples had been contaminated. The World Anti-Doping Agency said Saturday that the swimmers tested positive for the heart medication trimetazidine in the months leading up to the start of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 but that Chinese authorities told the agency the positives were the result of contamination. USADA CEO Travis Tygart called the news of the Chinese positive tests “crushing.” “It’s even more devastating to learn the World Anti-Doping Agency and the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency secretly, until now, swept these positives under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world,” Tygart said. World Aquatics, which oversees global swimming, told the Daily Telegraph it was confident “that these were handled diligently and professionally, and in accordance with all applicable anti-doping regulations, including the World Anti-Doping Code.” The drug at the center of this case was also the medication that led to the suspension of Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva at the Winter Olympics in Beijing in 2022.