The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
International swimming official ordered to testify
GENEVA — The international swimming federation says its executive director has been ordered to testify as a witness in a U.S. criminal investigation into the case of 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned substance in 2021 yet were allowed to continue competing.
The news comes just three weeks before the Paris Olympics, where 11 of the Chinese swimmers who tested positive for the banned heart medication three years ago are scheduled to compete.
Three of the swimmers won gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics that opened in July 2021, just weeks after the World Anti-Doping Agency declined to challenge Chinese authorities’ explanation of food contamination at a hotel to justify not suspending them.
Those decisions, which World Aquatics separately reached, were not revealed until reporting in April by the New York Times and German broadcaster ARD.
A House Committee on China asked the Justice Department and the FBI on May 21 to investigate the case under a federal law that allows probes into suspected doping even if it occurred outside the U.S.
Swimming’s world governing body, World Aquatics, confirmed to The Associated Press that its top administrator, Brent Nowicki, was subpoenaed to testify in the investigation.
“This scandal raises serious legal, ethical and competitive concerns and may constitute a broader state-sponsored strategy by the People’s Republic of China to unfairly compete at the Olympic Games in ways Russia has previously done,” the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party said in the letter to the Justice Department and FBI.
The case was raised at a congressional hearing last month in which swimming great Michael Phelps said athletes have lost faith in WADA as the global watchdog trying to keep cheaters out of sports.