Chinese kitchen claims odd Action on and off track in lead-up to Games
Sport is starting to heat up, with the Olympics less than 100 days away.
We were all shocked (well maybe not everyone), when revealed on the weekend that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive prior to the Tokyo Olympics back in 2021.
The story has only just come to light now, some four years after the fact.
How has it taken so long to be highlighted? There is a 61page investigative report from the Chinese anti-doping agency, Chinada, to WADA in 2021, which said it had found trace elements of TMZ in the extractor fan, on spice containers and in the drain of a hotel kitchen in Shijiazhuang, where the swimmers had been staying.
Chinada also pointed to low concentrations of TMZ, a heart drug that improves performance, in the urine samples of the swimmers as grounds to conclude intentional doping was “impossible”.
Furthermore, the report did not explain how a prescription drug available only in pill form had contaminated the kitchen.
The bottom line … Trimetazidine (TMZ) is a drug that helps the heart use energy more efficiently. It is used in some countries as a treatment for heart disease. Because it may also improve exercise tolerance, trimetazidine is recognised as a doping agent.
It is used to prevent and treat the symptoms of angina (chest pain). Angina is caused by a lack of blood supply and oxygen to your heart. Trimetazidine helps to maintain the energy metabolism of heart muscle cells, protecting them from the effects of reduced oxygen supply.
When used as a performance-enhancing drug, trimetazidine starts to work within hours of swallowing a single dose, and the effects can last for days. Trimetazidine may be detected in athletes’ urine for several days after the last use of the drug.
With the side effects of the drug including nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, indigestion, diarrhoea, dizziness, headaches, fatigue and rashes, I am amazed that athletes took the chance of using it.
I thought we had long passed the situation where countries had ‘state-sponsored doping’ which saw Russia and East Germany implicated decades ago.
There has obviously been widespread criticism of everyone associated with the testing and the respective report. It seems unrealistic that WADA, the world governing body, swept these positive results under the carpet for so long.
These athletes were not even provisionally suspended while the investigation was undertaken. Transparency is the only shining light in a world of darkness and coverups with drugs in sport and it is disappointing that rules have not been followed.
As an athlete who was in the system many years ago, I was even tested when I was six months pregnant with my second child, I am bewildered how this was kept quiet.
As elite athletes you just have to trust the system that is in place by your country’s drug testing unit and the overarching body, WADA.
This is a swimming issue but when looking at the principle, it is an issue we all need to be concerned with in competitive sport.
In more positive news, Track and Field can smile over the last week with some wonderful performances on the world stage.
Young walking teenager Isaac Beacroft led the country’s juniors to gold and bronze with a history-making performance in Antalya, Turkey, at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships.
Isaac become the youngest ever gold medallist of an under-20 title at the championships and shattered a long-held Australian under-20 record from 2004 when crossing the line in 39:56.
Australia also qualified two teams in the Marathon Race
Walk Mixed Relay for Paris. These results all go well for a wonderful show of Australian walkers in Paris.
Along with the walkers, Torrie Lewis sent the world athletics community into a frenzy when she won the 200m in the season-opening Diamond League meet in China beating 100m world champion Sha’Carri Richardson.
Having broken the Australian 100m record holder with a run of 11.10sec in Canberra in January, Torrie has continued to compete well in the domestic season, only a couple of weeks ago winning the national title in the 200m in 22.94 seconds. Oh, and didn’t you love her smile!
While amazing to see on the global stage, I am hoping that the media and the public are not going to put too much pressure on Torrie.
Please just let her travel along doing what she loves to do and running as fast as she can. It would be amazing for her to make a final in the Olympics.
When you put things into perspective, the world is just starting to compete in the outdoor season with many athletes running for the first time after the winter season. Having said this, some athletes come out and set some amazing performances such as Armand Duplantis who broke his own world pole vault record taking it to 6.24m.
I look forward to an exciting Track and Field program in the lead up to Paris.
The Diamond leagues are just commencing with many Australians travelling to either achieve Olympic qualification or improve their international rating so that they can achieve a ‘roll down’ to represent Australia at the Olympics.
To explain the “roll down” simply, each track and field event has a certain number of participants in the Olympics e.g. 48 for 400m. If you take out any athletes from a particular country after the 1st 3 then they are ranked and if you are in the top 48 then you are accepted in the event and invited to compete (even if you do not achieve the designated qualifying standard). It is complicated, but this is how it works in the current day.
Good luck to all those who are currently chasing Olympic selection.
Glynis Nunn is an Olympic champion and the executive director of the Gold Coast Academy of Sport