Chinese doping scandal that has hung over these Paris Olympics as the events finished Sunday night.
China won the men’s 4x100-meter medley relay in 3 minutes, 27.46 seconds, with two of the four members on the team listed among 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.
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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.
The World Anti-Doping Agency stood by its decision to clear the 23 swimmers who tested positive for a banned heart medication.
Meanwhile Sha’Carri (US running) was DQ’d previously for having THC in her system. Still trying to wrap my head around how pot can help you run faster.
They weren’t concerned about CBD or anything else, just the psychoactive THC.
THC is illegal in most of the world still. It’s like how testing positive for cocaine probably isn’t good for your odds.
They don’t really mention if it’s illegal or not to their reasoning. They only use three parameters for the decision.
They argue for points 2 (health risk) and 3 (commonly abused), both of which cigarettes and alcohol fit right in, but are unrestricted.
Why, exactly, do you think THC and cocaine are illegal for recreational consumption in most of the world? Someone decided one day that they really didn’t like the way it looks?
Food contamination is a real issue. It helps that everyone tested positive for the exact same substance in basically the exact same concentration, because usually it’s better to design your doping protocols tailored to each athlete’s body and training. Just intuitively, it’s not exactly standard practice to have your entire Olympic-level team shoot up on steroids at the same exact time.
Nevertheless, the pool isn’t slow: the US set the 1500m free and 4x100 medley women’s records. Meanwhile, WADA has been testing Chinese athletes far more than everyone else.
Edit: just to be clear, I don’t think his spread is even unreasonable in context. Phelps swam a 22.93 50m and a 47.51 100m (1.65s pace difference). Pan swam a 21.92 50m and a 46.40 100m (2.56s pace difference). For reference, Dressel did 50m in 21.04 and 100m in 46.96… but while Dressel is basically specialized at training for short stints, Pan also trains for 400m events so his back half is expected to not fall off as hard anyway (not to the level of Michael “my lactic acid doesn’t build up” Phelps, though).
