Olympics 2024: China, citing tainted burgers, cleared swimmers in a new doping dispute

Paris: Two elite Chinese swimmers, including one named to her country's team in the Paris Olympics, tested positive in 2022 for a banned drug but were secretly cleared of doping late last year by Chinese authorities, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.

After a lengthy investigation into the previously undisclosed incident, Chinese authorities were unable to determine exactly how the swimmers ingested the drug, a powerful anabolic steroid, but concluded that they had most likely done so unwittingly when they ate hamburgers at a restaurant in Beijing.

The Chinese emphasized in their explanation to global anti-doping regulators that only trace amounts of the steroid had been detected and said that those levels were consistent with contamination, not doping.

The decision to clear the swimmers was at least the third time in recent years that China has blamed contaminated food for positive tests by top swimmers, an explanation that has drawn skepticism from many anti-doping experts. Critics see the incident as the latest in a pattern of China's looking the other way when confronted with positive tests in its swimming program, and as a failure by global anti-doping agencies to ensure a level playing field for elite athletes.

Investigators and at least one expert for the World Anti-Doping Agency, known as WADA, were not convinced of the contamination explanation in the most recent case, one of the people with knowledge of the matter said. But the agency -- which is supposed to serve as a backstop when a country's own anti-doping authorities fail to properly police its athletes -- chose not to appeal China's decision not to impose bans on the swimmers.

Another anti-doping agency, the International Testing Agency, which was created in the wake of the Russian doping scandal that rocked Olympic sports nearly a decade ago, also reviewed the case. At least one ITA official believed that swimming's global governing body should appeal the Chinese decision to clear the athletes, the people with knowledge of the case said. But the swimming organization, known as World Aquatics, did not do so.

The two people with direct knowledge of the positive tests spoke on the condition of anonymity because details about the tests are supposed to remain secret. They said they decided to disclose the information because they believe that the tests were covered up and that the world should know about them at a time when global anti-doping efforts are coming under intensified scrutiny.

One of the swimmers, Tang Muhan, was a member of a freestyle relay team that won gold and set a world record at the last Summer Olympics, just edging the US and Australia. She has been named by state media as a member of this year's Olympic team and is a possible member of the Chinese 4x200 meter relay team, which Thursday will try to win a second consecutive gold medal in the event.

In response to questions from The New York Times, China's anti-doping authority, known as Chinada, did not address the newly disclosed case. However, Chinada 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 anti-doping work in strict accordance" with global rules.

The World Anti-Doping Agency did not dispute the facts of the case when asked for comment by the Times. The agency said it had "reviewed the full case file with considerable skepticism and all due diligence. In the end, there was no evidence to challenge the contamination scenario presented by the athletes and Chinada."

In a second statement, on Tuesday morning, it said, "WADA is generally concerned about the number of cases that have been closed without sanction when it is not possible to challenge the contamination theory."

The International Testing Agency said that its role with World Aquatics did not extend to challenging conclusions by national anti-doping agencies and that it "did not advise World Aquatics to appeal these decisions" by the Chinese anti-doping agency.

World Aquatics said it "would not be appropriate to comment" on the case in detail, but added that "it never received any recommendation from the ITA to appeal the case."

The latest incident is likely to fuel further debate over whether Chinese authorities and their global counterparts are failing to adequately address violations. At the same time, the incident also could lead to calls for flexibility in how the rules are enforced to account for situations in which testing -- ever improving with advancing technology -- is picking up banned substances that are being ingested accidentally. Chinese swimmers competing in Paris have vehemently denied doping, and WADA noted in its statement Tuesday that there had been several cases closed as so-called no-fault violations "with sometimes unusual methods of contamination."

In particular, it said, "there have been several cases in the United States in the past few months where highly intricate contamination scenarios were accepted."

The disclosure of these positive tests comes three months after the Times reported that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for a banned drug before the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. In that case, China also blamed food contamination and cited the low levels of the drug detected in the swimmers.

The World Anti-Doping Agency also declined to act in that case, even though two of the agency's top scientists said they had difficulty believing China's claim that the swimmers had been unwittingly contaminated. The decision to clear those swimmers left them free to compete at the Tokyo Games. At that meet, Chinese swimmers who tested positive months earlier won medals in five events, including three golds. Eleven of those swimmers are again on the Chinese team in Paris.

The fallout from the 23 positive tests has continued to hang over the world of competitive swimming and has led athletes from the U.S. and other countries to voice doubts about whether their sport is clean.

Under the code that governs Olympic sports, athletes are responsible for what is in their bodies. For many drugs, athletes are considered to have tested positive -- and face up to four-year bans -- even if they have small traces of the substance in their systems. Athletes can escape punishment only if they can clear the high bar of showing exactly how they ingested the drug unwittingly through circumstances outside their control, like tainted food. China has repeatedly invoked that explanation despite being unable to prove the source of any contamination.

Use of the drug detected in the 2022 tests -- metandienone, an anabolic steroid -- carries the harshest penalties, including a four-year ban. The drug is often referred to as Dianabol or D-Bol and is popular among swimmers and sprinters seeking an edge because of how it helps build lean muscle.

There is a history of some positive tests for banned drugs being linked back to food contamination, usually through the use of steroids and similar substances given to beef cattle to bulk them up. But anti-doping authorities and experts said that they could not think of another case where a positive test for metandienone was confirmed to have come from food contamination.

Anti-doping authorities do not need to prove that banned substances are used intentionally to impose sanctions. Last year, a Chinese distance runner was suspended from competition after a positive result for metandienone, despite having claimed that she had ingested the substance unwittingly when she accidentally drank from a training partner's water bottle.

As the Paris Games opened Friday, the International Testing Agency suspended a member of Iraq's Olympic judo team from the competition after he tested positive for metandienone and another anabolic steroid.

The Justice Department and FBI are conducting a criminal investigation into how the results from the 23 positive tests before the Tokyo Olympics were handled, a fact that has deeply unnerved International Olympic Committee and WADA officials.

Last week, the IOC imposed last-minute conditions on Utah and the U.S. Olympic Committee, effectively forcing them to sign an amended contract to award Salt Lake City the 2034 Winter Olympics. The amendments allow the IOC to move the 2034 Games to another city, if the U.S. is seen by the IOC as undermining the global system built around WADA.

The two swimmers in the latest case, Tang and He Junyi, were training in 2022 at a national team facility in Beijing. The Chinese told WADA that the two of them went out together for a day in early October, stopping at a restaurant for Coke, hamburgers and fries. Days later, they were subjected to routine drug testing, which came back positive when the results were reported the following month.

Tang, 20, had not previously been publicly tied to a positive test. Two other members of the Chinese relay team that won gold in the last Olympics were among the 23 swimmers who had tested positive for a banned substance months before the Tokyo Games but were never sanctioned.

He is not a member of this year's Olympic team. But his positive test stood out for another reason: He was also among the 23 swimmers who tested positive in 2021 for a banned substance -- a prescription heart medication, trimetazidine, known as TMZ, that can increase stamina and endurance and hasten recovery times.

This would mean that in the span of less than two years He had twice accidentally consumed food tainted with powerful performance-enhancing drugs.

After the positive tests in 2022, Chinese authorities initially issued provisional suspensions against the two swimmers as the WADA code requires, steps not taken in the earlier case of the 23 swimmers who had tested positive. But China does not ever appear to have publicly disclosed its finding of food contamination in either case, as required under WADA rules.

Tang contested the action, setting off a hearing process. But Chinese authorities paused that process and began a wide-ranging investigation that brought in the state's security services.

The investigation focused on the possibility that the swimmers had eaten hamburgers made with beef from cattle that had been fed anabolic steroids. The inquiry included testing meat samples across the country, tracking beef imports to China from Australia and even conducting studies in which individuals were given contaminated meat and then tested to see what level of the banned substance was detected.

Ultimately, the investigation was unable to pinpoint the source of any potentially tainted meat. But last December, the Chinese decided that the swimmers would be cleared of wrongdoing.

Still, while it took place, the swimmers were barred from races. According to data on the World Aquatics website, He has not competed at major national or international meets since the positive tests were returned to Chinese authorities in November 2022.

Tang appeared to have been absent from competition for about a year before resurfacing in December at the Chinese nationals and then being named to the Olympic team.

On Tuesday, WADA confirmed that their absences were because they had been suspended.