Top Chinese Swimmers Tested Positive for Banned Drug, Then Won Olympic Gold
The case, involving multiple swimmers who seven months later won medals at the 2021 Games, prompted accusations of a cover-up and concerns over why antidoping regulators chose not to intervene.
Zhang Yufei, center, was one of 23 top Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug months before the Tokyo Olympic Games. Credit... Manan Vatsyayana/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Michael S. Schmidt, who reported from New York, and Tariq Panja, who reported from London and Lausanne, Switzerland, have both written extensively about doping in sports.
Twenty-three top Chinese swimmers tested positive for the same powerful banned substance seven months before the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021 but were allowed to escape public scrutiny and continue to compete after top Chinese officials secretly cleared them of doping and the global authority charged with policing drugs in sports chose not to intervene.
Several of the athletes who tested positive — including nearly half of the swimming team that China sent to the Tokyo Games — went on to win medals, including three golds. Many still compete for China and several, including the two-time gold medalist Zhang Yufei, are expected to contend for medals again at this year’s Summer Games in Paris.
