BEIJING, JUNE 19: China will send 11 swimmers implicated in a major doping scandal to next months Paris Olympics, after the country named its squad for the Games.
Twenty-three Chinese swimmers tested positive for the prescription heart drug trimetazidine (TMZ) -- which can enhance performance -- ahead of the pandemic-delayed 2021 Tokyo Games, it emerged in April.
They were not sanctioned after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accepted the argument of Chinese authorities that the positive tests were caused by contaminated food.
Several of the swimmers went on to win medals, including gold, in Tokyo months later.
China named its swimming squad for Paris on Tuesday. Among them were 11 of the 23 who were named in news reports in April that broke the story about the mass positive tests. The squad includes butterfly specialist Zhang Yufei, who won two golds in Japan, as well as another gold medallist in Wang Shun.
Breaststroke multiple world champion and 200m record-holder Qin Haiyang is another who was named in the reports and will go to Paris. In April, The New York Times and German broadcaster ARD reported that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for TMZ at a domestic competition in late 2020 and early 2021.
It was determined by Chinese anti-doping authorities that they ingested the substance unwittingly from tainted food at their hotel and no action against them was warranted. —AFP
