He’s ordered anti-doping authorities to ‘wake up and do their job’
Adam Peaty has slammed Olympic relay winners after controversial race calling out concerns over doping.
The three-time Olympic gold medal winning swimmer has criticised doping authorities for not doing their job correctly as he casted doubts over the legitimacy of the Chinese swimming relay team which took gold last night.
The legendary swimmer told anti-doping authorities to “wake up and do their job” after failing to take action on Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned substance in the lead up to the Tokyo Olympics.
Two of the swimmers that were part of the gold medal winning 4x100m medley relay team, Qin Haiyang and Sun Jiajun, were part of a 23 swimmer contingent that tested positive for trimetazidine in 2021.
Trimetazidine is normally prescribed to sufferers of Angina as it allows for more blood flow to the heart and helps the body use oxygen, making it a serious performance enhancing drug.
China’s anti-doping agency claimed that the drug had entered their bloodstreams via a contaminated hotel kitchen.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) subsequently took no action.
The six-time Olympic medallist Peaty called into the question the integrity of the swimmers
He said: “If you touch and you know that you’re cheating, you’re not winning, right? I don’t want to paint a whole nation or group of people with one brush, I think that’s very unfair.
“One of my favourite quotes I’ve seen lately is that there’s no point winning if you’re not winning fair.”
He added: “I think you know that truth in your heart.
“For me, if you’ve been on that and you have been contaminated twice, I think as an honourable person you should be out of the sport. But we know sport isn’t that simple.”
Following on from the Chinese swimmers testing positive back in 2021, WADA said it was “not in a position to disprove” reports of contamination ultimately choosing not to appeal the matter after consultation with independent experts and external legal counsel.
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Since then an independent report found that WADA did not not bias in handling the case with Chinese athletes allegedly being drug tested twice as much as all other athletes in the lead up to the Paris games.
Despite this a criminal investigation against WADA is underway in the United States concerning this controversial issue with the chief executives of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, Travis Tygart alluding to a potential cover up.
WADA reject this claim as “completely false and defamatory.”
Speaking about WADA Peaty showed scepticism.
He said: “We have to have faith in the system but we also don’t.
“The Americans have been very vocal. We didn’t want to get distracted with that.
He added: “But I think it’s got to be stricter. What I’ve said from the start is that it’s fraud. If you’re cheating, it’s fraud.”
Peaty’s comments are just the latest chapter in a long saga of scepticism cast over the Chinese athletes in the pool.
Seven-time Olympic gold medallist, Caeleb Dressel, gave his thoughts on the situation as he replied “no, not really” when asked if he faith in the authorities.
He added: “I don’t think they have given us enough evidence to support how this case was handled.”
Only days ago WADA claimed it was “unfairly caught” in a row between the Chinese and American anti-doping agencies blaming geopolitical tensions.
It said: “Certain individuals [in the US] are attempting to score political points purely on the basis that the athletes in question are Chinese.
“The result is that it has created distrust and division within the anti-doping system.”
