Warning signs blinking over swimmers’ anger at alleged Chinese doping scandal ahead of Olympics

CNN —

The director of an international sports advocacy group has a warning for organizers of the Olympic Games ahead of next week’s competitions in the pool: The doping scandal that plagued the sport in recent months isn’t going away.

Ever since the New York Times reported in April that 23 Chinese swimmers had all tested positive for the same banned substance ahead of the Tokyo Olympics and were still allowed to compete at the games in 2021, resentment and frustration has been simmering in the water. Eleven of those Chinese swimmersare due to compete again in Paris, and many of their rivals are preparing to go against them with a sense of bitter resignation.

Rob Koehler, director of international sports advocacy group Global Athlete, told CNN that they are already anticipating the worst.

“If any of those 11 Chinese swimmers hit a podium,” he said, “they will absolutely lose it.”

The Chinese swimmers tested positive for the banned performance enhancing drug Trimetazidine at a national meet several months before the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, but China’s Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) said that the concentration was “extremely low.” CHINADA decided that the swimmers were not responsible for the results because the drug had been accidentally ingested via some contaminated food.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was notified of the test results a month before the games in 2021 and accepted CHINADA’s conclusion, because, according to WADA’s President Witold Bańka, they found “no credible way to disprove the contamination theory that was accepted by CHINADA.”

CNN has reached out to CHINADA for comment on this story.

In a statement, WADA stood by its previous decision-making and said an independent prosecutor had confirmed