The Chinese swimmers tested positive for the heart medicine trimetazidin during a camp in 2021. China's anti-doping organization stated that the athletes had ingested the heart medicine through contaminated food. An explanation that Wada accepted.
No swimmers were banned during the investigation, and when the doping history became known this year, it led to strong criticism against China and Wada. Several swimmers participated in the Olympic Games 2021 and won medals, and also participated in Paris this year. Zhang Yufei won medals in both games.
The criticism led to an independent investigator reviewing the handling of the case, and the Swiss prosecutor Eric Cottier has now submitted his report. He says that Wada handled the case correctly, although there were significant flaws in China's handling. But he is also critical.
"In hindsight, Wada's silence seems strange, considering that the procedure (in China) does not follow the fundamental rules, and its lack of reaction is surprising," writes Cottier.
Wada is satisfied with the result of the report.
"But there are really mistakes to learn from for us and for others," says the organization's general director Olivier Niggli in a statement.
Wada will now improve its internal guidelines for handling doping cases, improve communication with national anti-doping organizations and athletes, and improve the alarm system in the Adams database to detect, for example, delays in test analysis.
China's comment on the report is that it has zero tolerance for doping.
China has always followed the international anti-doping rules and has a zero-tolerance attitude towards doping, says Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning at a press conference.
