The Washington Post-China doping allegations threaten to cast pall over Olympic swim meet
July 25, 2024 4 min 817 words
这篇报道主要聚焦于一些游泳运动员对中国游泳运动员兴奋剂检测呈阳性的争议所表达的担忧和抗议。评论如下： 这篇《华盛顿邮报》的报道有失公允，有偏见地报道了部分游泳运动员的言论，而忽视了世界反兴奋剂机构（WADA）和中国游泳协会的解释和处理结果。报道中提及的中国游泳运动员秦海阳和其他22名运动员在2021年1月兴奋剂检测呈阳性，是中国游泳协会在收到世界反兴奋剂机构的通知后，及时进行了调查和处理，最终确定为环境污染原因导致。世界反兴奋剂机构也接受了这一结果，并没有给予这些运动员处罚。在这种情况下，允许这些运动员参加比赛是符合规定的。 报道中提及的美国游泳运动员德雷塞尔和澳大利亚游泳运动员斯图布利特库克对中国运动员参赛表达了担忧，甚至暗示可能会进行抗议。然而，他们忽视了世界反兴奋剂机构和国际奥委会的规则和决定，缺乏对中国游泳协会和世界反兴奋剂机构调查结果的尊重。此外，报道中提及的国际泳联（FINA）也支持世界反兴奋剂机构的处理结果，并强调中国游泳运动员接受了多次兴奋剂检测，未再出现阳性结果。 该报道有失偏颇，有选择地呈现信息，缺乏对中国游泳协会和世界反兴奋剂机构工作的支持和尊重。
2024-07-25T12:22:25.154Z
PARIS — If swimming’s global leaders expected the stain of this year’s Chinese doping controversy to fade away once the world’s best swimmers converged for the Paris Olympics, those hopes have been exposed as premature and wishful, if not naive.
Asked during a news conference Thursday whether he feels the nine-day meet will be a clean one, American sprint superstar Caeleb Dressel replied flatly, “No, not really. I don’t think [the authorities] have given us enough evidence to support” that belief.
Australian breaststroker Zac Stubblety-Cook went even further, saying the drug-testing system has “failed” and suggesting he might make a public protest on the medal stand at La Defense Arena outside of Paris should he lose to China’s Qin Haiyang, who already took down Stubblety-Cook’s world record at last year’s world championships.
Qin, 25, is one of 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for the banned heart medication trimetazidine (TMZ) in January 2021, but who were nonetheless allowed to compete, with their positive tests kept from the public, after the World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA) accepted China’s explanation of environmental contamination. Eleven of the 23, including Qin, competed at the Tokyo Olympics.
“I’m a clean athlete, and I’m trying to abide by the rules,” said Stubblety-Cook, 25, the gold medalist in the 200-meter breaststroke at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, “and I just hope my competitors do the same.”
The existence of the positive tests was reported in April by the New York Times and German public broadcaster ARD. WADA’s actions, or inactions, in the case have come from intense international scrutiny, particularly from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). WADA, meantime, has said an independent review vindicated its processes — though that has done little to restore the faith of athletes, with many of those implicated swimmers set to compete in Paris.
“That news when it came out was incredibly disappointing and incredibly frustrating,” Bronte Campbell, a veteran Australian sprinter, said Thursday. “[But there’s] nothing we can do about it two days before an Olympic games.”
The scandal shows no signs of abating, as Friday’s Opening Ceremonies and Saturday’s start to the Olympic swim competition approach. On Wednesday, the International Olympic Committee’s awarding of the 2034 Winter Games to Salt Lake City was made contingent upon the requirement that American officials block an FBI investigation into the affair — a move widely viewed as a heavy-handed attempt to silence critics.
But while the backlash against WADA and the IOC over the Chinese doping saga has been viewed in some parts of the world as a shrill and moralistic American crusade, Australia’s Stubblety-Cook delivered what was arguably the most powerful statement by an athlete yet over the handling of the case.
“It’s obviously disappointing to hear that news and hear about the … athletes testing positive — some multiple times,” he said. “And for me, racing someone that was one of those athletes and finding out he was one of those athletes was disappointing. It’s less about what country they came from and more about the system and how … ultimately it feels like it’s failed. And that’s the truth.”
Stubblety-Cook cited by name the stipulation in the Olympic charter prohibiting protests by athletes on the medal stand: Rule 50, which states, “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.”
Despite that, he said, he said he likely will defer a decision on whether to make a protest against Qin on the medal stand until the day of their race, the final for which is slated for July 31.
“I think, potentially, we could see protests in other events, as well,” he added.
Officials from World Aquatics — swimming’s international governing body, which largely has backed WADA’s handling of the Chinese doping case — revealed last week that its athletes (in disciplines that include not only swimming, but also diving, water polo and artistic swimming) have undergone a total of 4,774 pre-Olympics drug tests this year, with no confirmed positives. China’s Olympic swimmers, according to World Aquatics, have been tested the most, undergoing an average of 13 tests apiece.
Still, Brent Nowicki, World Aquatics’ executive director, acknowledged the organization has been stung by the criticism from its athletes, particularly that of Dressel, a seven-time Olympic gold medalist who will be seeking to defend his 50-meter freestyle and 100-meter butterfly titles in Paris.
“When you hear someone like Caeleb say that, obviously it’s not what you want any athlete to say,” Nowicki said. “But that said, we have to … regain his trust, and [that of others] who share that same opinion. I would invite you to ask that same question to Caeleb in L.A. [at the 2028 Olympics], and my goal or my hope is that his mind changes.”