Chinese doping scandal clouds swimming events in Paris

NANTERRE, France — Olympic swimmers spoke out about the Chinese doping scandal that has hung over these Paris Olympics as the events finished Sunday night.

China won the men’s 4×100-meter medley relay in 3 minutes, 27.46 seconds, with two of the four members of the team on the list of 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive ahead of the Tokyo Olympics three years ago. The swimmers were allowed to compete after a Chinese investigation ruled that they consumed food that had been contaminated.

“In sport, one of my favorite quotes I’ve seen lately is ‘There’s no point in winning if you don’t win it fair,’” British star Adam Peaty said after his foursome wound up fourth to miss the medal stand. “I think you know that truth in your heart. Even if you touch and you know you’re cheating, you’re not winning, right? So, for me, if you’ve been on that and you have been contaminated twice, I think as an honorable person it means you should be out of the sport. We know sport is not that simple.”

The New York Times reported last week that two more Chinese swimmers had tested positive, including one 2024 Olympian, for a banned substance in 2022 but were cleared by Chinese officials to compete.

Peaty said he kept his mouth shut all week, then ultimately decided it was time to share his disappointment and frustrations with what he considers a fractured system.

China earned bronze in the women’s 4×100 medley shortly after the men’s victory. Zhang Yufei, another one of the swimmers among the 23, was on the team.

Zhang said when the Olympics began that she and her teammates tested three to four days a week in the past couple of months leading up to the Paris Games and in the wake of a doping scandal involving 23 Chinese swimmers. The World Anti-Doping Agency stood by its decision to clear the swimmers who tested positive for a banned heart medication months before the Tokyo Games began.