WADA stands by decision to clear Chinese swimmers for Tokyo Olympics, citing contaminated samples

GENEVA — The World Anti-Doping Agency said after reviewing various media reports that it stands by its decision to clear 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned heart medication before the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

WADA addressed questions at a Monday news conference and acknowledged there would be skepticism about details of the case after the release Sunday of a documentary by German broadcaster ARD.

In an earlier statement following initial newspaper reports led by the New York Times, WADA said it agreed with Chinese authorities and ruled the swimmers’ samples were contaminated. The contamination was accepted to have come from spice containers in the kitchen of a hotel where some of the Chinese team stayed for a national meet in January 2021

Chinese authorities handling the case after testing the swimmers in January 2021 cleared them without any penalties and WADA accepted their conclusions. Sending independent investigators to China that year was not feasible during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We had no credible way to disprove the contamination theory,” WADA prosecutor Ross Wenzel told reporters in an online call Monday.

Wenzel detailed a timeline from January to June 2021 for the case to be resolved. That was just weeks before the Tokyo Olympics opened, and with the Beijing Winter Games approaching in February 2022 that was a personal project for Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The 30-member Chinese swim team went on to win six medals, including three gold, in Tokyo.

Chinese women won the 4x200 freestyle relay, in which Canada finished fourth.

Toronto teenager Summer MacIntosh was fourth in the women’s 400-metre freestyle, in which a Chinese swimmer took bronze.

“Following WADA’s review of the documentary, the agency still stands firmly by the results of its scientific investigation and legal decision concerning the case,” WADA said Monday.

WADA said based on available scientific intelligence, “which was gathered, assessed and tested by experts in the pharmacology of trimetazidine (TMZ); and, by anti-doping experts,” it had no basis under the global anti-doping code to challenge the Chinese agency’s findings of environmental contamination.