An Olympic athlete was 'secretly' cleared to compete in the 2024 Paris Games despite testing positive for a banned substance, according to whistleblowers.
Competing at the Olympic Games is the pinnacle of the sporting calendar, but the 2024 Paris Games have already been overshadowed by a number of incidents that are seemingly at odds with the spirit of the competition.
There was public outcry when a Dutch volleyball player, convicted of raping a child ten years ago, was selected to represent his nation.
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The spying scandal surrounding the Canadian women's football team has made headlines for the past week.
Now it has emerged that a Chinese swimmer is competing at the games despite testing positive for a banned steroid in 2022.
According to the New York Times, China's Olympic committee allegedly dismissed the positive tests late last year and claimed that the athletes had unknowingly consumed the substance by eating hamburgers at a restaurant in Beijing.
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China reasoned in their explanation to global antidoping regulators that only trace amounts of the steroid had been detected and said that those levels indicated contamination rather than doping.
It is the third time in three years that China has used contaminated food as an excuse for failed doping tests.
One of the swimmers is Tang Muhan, who may participate in China's bid to defend their gold medal in the 4x200 meter relay team event on Thursday.
She was a member of the freestyle team that won gold and set a world record at the 2020 Games in Tokyo.
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The World Anti-Doping Agency were not satisfied by the contamination explanation, according to New York Times sources.
However, the agency did not appeal China's decision not to suspend the swimmers.
One official at the International Testing Agency recommended that World Aquatics should appeal the Chinese decision, but swimming’s global governing body did not do so.
When approached for comment by the NYT, Chinada - China's antidoping authority - said that it "has always maintained a scientific, rigorous and objective attitude, adhered to a firm stance of ‘zero tolerance’ for doping, and has always carried out its antidoping work in strict accordance" with global rules.
Alex Brotherton