PARIS. There has been no ambiguity about the number one topic of conversation in the swimming world in recent months.
The exposé about the mass cartel of 23 Chinese swimmers published by the German channel ARD and the American newspaper The New York Times in the spring was heavily featured when Urheilu participated in the press conference of the Australian national swimming team.
– When I heard about the news, I was extremely frustrated. However, we can’t do anything about it two days before the start of the Olympics, freestyle specialist Bronte Campbell said.
Campbell is the 2015 50-meter freestyle world champion and a two-time Olympic champion in that swimming style in the 4×100-meter relay. Chinese swimmers have not been successful on those trips, but the same cannot be said for the one sitting next to Campbell From Zac Stubblety-Cook.
The Finnish audience remembers Stubblety-Cook from the Tokyo Olympics, where the Aussie won gold in the 200-meter breaststroke. The duller medals went to the Netherlands Arno Kamminga and Finland For Matti Mattsson.
In 2022, Stubblety-Cook will swim the world record for the distance. He lost it a year later to the Chinese Qi to Haiyangwho also beat Stubblety-Cook in the 2023 World Championships.
Qi is one of the 23 Chinese swimmers whose names were revealed in the ARD and The New York Times expose.
– I was disappointed that I have competed with an athlete who participated in such a competition. I wasn’t so disappointed with the country the swimmers come from. I was disappointed with the system. Stubblety-Cook criticized Wada, the World Anti-Doping Agency, adding:
– I could say anything about this, but now I’m only focusing on these games and pure sport.
Do hortons?
Finally, Stubblety-Cook was asked if he could make a similar protest to his countryman Mac Horton in 2019.
At that time, Horton, who had missed the World Cup silver in the 400-meter freestyle, refused to shake the hand of the Chinese, who scooped the gold Sun Yang’s and didn’t get on the podium at all.
Sun had destroyed his doping sample but received a competition permit because the International Swimming Federation did not have time to process the case before the World Championships.
Section 50.2 of the Olympic rules prohibits political expressions from athletes, but it has not prevented athletes from acting as they wish.
Kulttuurikeskus Tahto special expert Vesa Tikanderin according to the opinion expressions for opponents have been rare at the medal ceremonies of the Olympic Games.
– In Munich 1972, the USA refused to accept the basketball silver medals after suffering a controversial final loss to the Soviet Union. In Beijing 2008 Sweden Ara Abrahamian accepted the bronze medal but took it off his neck, put the medal on the carpet and walked away in protest, Tikander recalls.
On the other hand, the history of the Olympics, which begins in 1896, does not, at least for the second time, know of a case where an athlete did not get on the podium because of another athlete.
If any conclusions can be drawn from Abrahamian’s case, the sentiment would be to lose the medal.
– Everyone knows rule 50.2. I make a decision based on how I feel at that moment. I am a clean sportsman and follow the rules. I hope others will do the same, Stubblety-Cook settled for answering the question of whether he would do the same as Horton.
Later on Thursday, Matti Mattsson announced in the Finnish team info that he would get on the podium with Qi instead of politics.
“Not enough evidence”
23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for the banned prescription heart drug trimetazidine in early 2021, i.e. the same substance from which the figure skater Kamila Valieva was banned for four years.
In Corona-era China, the country’s security service went to collect alleged evidence from a hotel that, according to the information provided by the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency, had accommodated swimmers. The collection, which revealed traces of trimetazidine, allegedly took place in the kitchen of a Chinese hotel three and a half months after the Games and allegedly revealed traces of trimetazidine in a range hood, spice containers and a soup cesspool.
The anti-doping authorities in both China and Wada trusted the information provided by the Chinese safety authority and did not even temporarily suspend the athletes. The matter would not have come to light without the work of investigative journalists from ARD and The New York Times.
It is still not known how the trimetazidine ended up in the hotel kitchen and who the prescription heart medication in question belonged to.
Seven-time Olympic champion and 15-time long-track world champion Caeleb Dressel didn’t pat the heads of the anti-doping bosses in the afternoon at the International Swimming Federation press conference.
Dressel had a clear answer as to whether the competition in Paris will be based on equal principles.
– Not really. I don’t think we’ve been told enough evidence to make us side with them (international anti-doping officials and the International Swimming Federation) in the way this case has been handled. So the answer to your question is no, said Dressel, who has a chance to become the second-most Olympic gold medalist of all time in Paris.