British Olympic swimmer Matt Richards expressed concern that the participation of 23 Chinese athletes who tested positive for a banned substance in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics could damage the reputation of swimming, especially with the Paris Games approaching in less than 100 days.
Matt Richards informed ITV News that he has undergone seven drug tests in 2024, even though it’s not yet May. He emphasized that he is completely clean and finds it frustrating to compete against athletes who may not take anti-doping regulations as seriously
The positive tests of the Chinese swimmers came to light following a collaborative investigation by The New York Times and the German broadcaster ARD.
WADA accepted the explanation provided by Chinese authorities that the swimmers had inadvertently consumed food contaminated with trimetazidine, a powerful heart medication, during a training camp held months prior to the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo
The head of the US Anti-Doping Agency criticized WADA, accusing them of disregarding the positive tests, a claim WADA vehemently denied, labeling it as “outrageous, completely false, and defamatory.”
Mr. Richards emphasized to ITV News that once public perception regarding the cleanliness of a sport diminishes, it can lead to a rapid decline, tarnishing the entire sport’s reputation in the process.
Mr. Richards mentioned that he knows some members of the Chinese team personally and is friendly with them. He expressed uncertainty about whether they are clean or doping, acknowledging that they themselves might not even be aware if they were doping. He described it as a difficult situation to navigate.
Mr. Richards further elaborated that he was present in the same apartment building with athletes like Duncan Scott, who was defeated by one of the athletes mentioned in the list of positive tests. He highlighted that Scott could have potentially been an Olympic champion individually.
Duncan Scott, who was Mr. Richards’ teammate in the gold medal-winning 4x200m freestyle relay team in Tokyo, was defeated in the 200m men’s medley by Wang Shun, one of the Chinese swimmers who tested positive for the banned substance.
On Saturday, Mr. Richards’ Olympic teammate James Guy posted on X: “Wow. Ban them all and never compete again.”
Mr. Richards expressed his uncertainty about whether banning all athletes is the appropriate solution, as there may be individuals among them who are clean. However, he admitted that seeing 23 athletes from the same country, at the same camp, all testing positive for the same drug does raise questions.
China’s anti-doping agency maintained that doping reports were “misleading” and stated that the swimmers had inadvertently tested for “extremely low concentrations” of the heart medication.
