The 12 medals that Chinese swimmers won in Paris will forever be tainted

Six of China’s Paris medals were won by Zhang Yufei, who was among the 23 Chinese swimmers found to have trimetazidine (TMZ) in their system before the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo. TMZ, a heart medication, is a potent performance enhancer that is banned not only during competition but at all times because of its training benefits in increasing endurance and speeding up recovery. This was the same substance that led to a four-year suspension of Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva.

But Zhang was never punished. Chinese authorities, citing an investigation done by a government ministry with police powers, claimed that Zhang and her fellow athletes had inadvertently consumed TMZ from a hotel kitchen that was contaminated with the substance. Doping experts, including scientists from the World Anti-Doping Agency, deemed that scenario improbable. But even though WADA requires provisional suspension as well as public disclosure for positive tests, none of the athletes were suspended. In fact, the incident was handled so quietly that even WADA’s own board was unaware until earlier this year. (WADA has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.)

This was not the only case decided behind closed doors in direct contravention of WADA’s rules. The organization has since confirmed that three of the 23 athletes found to have TMZ in 2021 also tested positive for another banned substance, clenbuterol, in 2016 and 2017. These cases were also blamed on contamination, though, again, they were not disclosed and none of the athletes were suspended.

All three competed in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and in Paris. One of them, Wang Shun, won an individual bronze medal. Another, Yang Junxuan, participated in relays that won one silver and three bronze medals. And the third, Qin Haiyang, took part in two relays, one that won a silver and another that won gold, ahead of the second-place American team.

Consider also new details that have emerged since the Paris Olympics began. The New York Times reported that in 2022, two more elite Chinese swimmers tested positive for metandienone, a banned anabolic steroid favored by bodybuilders. Like TMZ and clenbuterol, metandienone comes with a mandatory four-year suspension and public disclosure.

In this case, the two swimmers were sanctioned, but strangely, the punishment was meted behind closed doors and the suspension was subsequently reversed. Chinese authorities once again blamed contamination, this time citing steroid-containing hamburgers from a Beijing restaurant.

Journalists from ARD, a German national broadcaster, investigated whether such a contamination scenario is plausible. Chinese authorities alleged that the tainted meat came from New Zealand and Australia, but both countries have strict food controls. No athlete from these countries has tested positive for metandienone because of eating meat. And this is not a substance used in agriculture, though it is a notorious performance enhancer. Multiple sprinters have been banned because of it, and an Iraqi judoka was recently suspended at the Paris Games after testing positive.

One of the swimmers who had metandienone in his system in 2022, He Junyi, was among those found to have TMZ the year before. The other, Tang Muhan, was part of the relay team that set a world record and won gold in Tokyo. Her 2022 sanction appeared to be cleared in time for her to compete in Paris, where she has won a bronze medal for a relay.

China’s anti-doping authority, Chinada, in response to the Times’s reporting on the metandienone cases, insisted that it has “adhered to a firm stance of ‘zero tolerance’ for doping.” In Paris, many Chinese swimmers declined to speak to reporters on advice from their national team. Those who did were defiant and defensive. “Why should Chinese swimmers be questioned when they swim fast?” remarked Zhang, who has netted 10 Olympic medals since testing positive for TMZ. “Why did no one dare to question USA’s Michael Phelps when he got eight gold medals?”

The difference, of course, is that Phelps — and Ledecky, Marchand and countless other athletes — never tested positive for a banned substance. They didn’t have numerous teammates who also failed drug tests, some more than once, but were somehow cleared despite circumstances that strain credulity.

Although it is possible some Chinese swimmers never doped and won their Olympic races fairly, their results, too, are under a cloud of suspicion. They will have an asterisk next to their name whether they deserve it or not. And elite swimmers around the world will be left wondering if they lost to people who cheated the system, with the complicity of anti-doping authorities.