The Paris Olympics begin, overshadowed by the Chinese doping scandal

But none of the Chinese swimmers were suspended. In fact, 13 went on to compete in Tokyo, where the team won six medals. Despite the World Anti-Doping Agency’s own rules requiring public disclosure for positive tests, the organization, which is tasked with enforcing anti-doping rules for international sports, only acknowledged them after news reports broke — more than three years after the failed tests.

More egregious details have since emerged. Another Times investigation, published last month, found that three of the swimmers found with TMZ in 2021 had also tested positive in 2016 and 2017 for another potent drug, clenbuterol. Like TMZ, clenbuterol, which acts like an anabolic steroid by promoting muscle growth, is prohibited and should have resulted in a four-year suspension.

Again, the athletes were not sanctioned, and the incidents were not disclosed. Two went on to win gold medals in Tokyo, and the third has since become a world record holder. All three — and eight others who failed tests in 2021 — are representing China in this year’s Olympics.

In both instances, WADA accepted Chinese authorities’ explanation that the positive tests occurred because of environmental contamination. In the 2021 case, Chinese authorities claimed they found trace amounts of TMZ in the kitchen of the hotel where the swimmers were staying. They alleged that TMZ was unknowingly mixed in with the athletes’ food.

There are multiple problems with this explanation. First, TMZ is a pill, not a powder or liquid. It is infrequently used and not found in supplements or given to livestock. So how did this substance somehow get into the kitchen? Furthermore, despite extensive investigation, not one kitchen staff or hotel employee was found to be taking TMZ, and no other guests came forward as being prescribed the medicine or testing positive for it.

WADA has denied any wrongdoing, claiming that a report it commissioned exonerates the organization. But the annex of that report shows two top scientists at the organization expressing skepticism, even incredulity, about the accidental contamination hypothesis. WADA’s chief scientist, Olivier Rabin, said in 2021 that uncertainties about the source of contamination “made it almost impossible to design a realistic scenario” and that he continued to have doubts about the reality of contamination as described by the Chinese authorities, according to the annex. Associate scientist Irene Mazzoni similarly expressed “her difficulty in believing in the contamination due to the minimal doses found in the kitchen.” (When questioned about this, a WADA spokesperson responded with a new quote from Rabin that apparently contradicted his and Mazzoni’s previous statements. There is “no evidence to challenge the contamination scenario,” he said.)

Left unspoken is another possibility for the multiple positive tests: that there is systemic doping among Chinese Olympic athletes that the government is eager to cover up.

This would not be without precedent. In 1994, seven Chinese swimmers tested positive for steroids at the Asian Games in Hiroshima. In 1998, Australian customs officers found a Chinese swimmer traveling to the world championships in Perth with 13 vials of human growth hormone in her luggage. Four Chinese swimmers failed doping tests during that competition. A former doctor for Chinese Olympians subsequently revealed that elite athletes throughout the 1980s and ’90s were routinely subjected to state-sponsored doping.

As recently as 2016, the Times of London investigated whistleblower claims that Chinese authorities attempted to hide failed tests ahead of the Rio Olympics that year. The outlet also reported that a Chinese head coach who had previously been banned for life for giving teenagers steroids, diuretics and other medications was once again working with Chinese swimmers. Shortly after that report, Chinese authorities acknowledged that six of its swimmers tested positive for banned drugs, including three cases involving clenbuterol in 2015.

If nothing else, China’s checkered history, suspicious circumstances and the high-stakes geopolitical consequences should have prompted WADA to follow its own rules and suspend the athletes in 2021, pending investigation, and publicly disclose the failed tests. It did not, and WADA’s president, Witold Banka, has doubled down: “If we had to do it over again now, we would do exactly the same thing,” he said in a recent news conference.

Fortunately, the Justice Department and FBI have opened a criminal investigation into the handling of the doping allegations. The Biden administration and a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers are also considering actions to hold WADA accountable for failing in its role as the global arbiter of clean sport.

Regrettably, all these steps will come too late for the athletes in Paris. They will have to compete not knowing if those around them are unfairly benefiting from performance-enhancing substances.