Triple Olympic gold medalist Adam Peaty has called for stricter dope testing and expressed his lack of faith in the system after China won the final men’s swimming race of the Paris Olympics. Britain finished fourth and missed out on a medal. When asked if his comments were fueled by anger and frustration, Peaty indicated to reporters that there was more to it. “I think we’ve got to have faith in the system, but we also don’t,” he said. “I think it’s just got to be stricter.”
The Chinese swim team has faced intense scrutiny since revelations in April that 23 of their swimmers tested positive for a banned heart medication before the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Despite the positive tests, these swimmers were allowed to compete. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accepted the findings of a Chinese investigation that the results were due to contamination from a hotel kitchen, and an independent review backed WADA’s handling of the case. However, The New York Times reported last week that two Chinese swimmers tested positive in 2022 for a banned steroid, also blamed on contaminated food, but had provisional suspensions lifted. China’s anti-doping agency (CHINADA) has accused the U.S. newspaper of politicising doping issues and said the publication was trying to “affect the psychology” of Chinese athletes at the Olympics.
Peaty, referencing the recent doping controversies, stated, “One of my favourite quotes I’ve seen lately is there’s no point in winning if you don’t win it fair.” He added, “Even if you touch and you know you’re cheating, you don’t win it, right. So 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.” Peaty narrowly missed out on a third successive 100 metres breaststroke gold, settling for silver in Paris. He clarified that he did not want to make sweeping judgments about an entire nation or group of people, but that the two reported cases were very disappointing. “If you’re cheating, it’s fraud. And it’s not about the podium, because whoever’s in the race, I expect in my head it has to be fair to be there. And we did our best job as a team to do that.”
China finished the Olympics fifth in the medals table with 12 medals, including only two golds. The United States topped the table with 28 medals, including eight golds. Australia, France, and Canada all finished ahead of China in terms of gold medal count. Great Britain won only five medals, including one gold in the men’s 4×200 freestyle relay. China finished fourth in that race.
Nine-times gold medalist Caeleb Dressel, a member of the U.S. team that took silver behind China in the men’s 4×100 medley relay, was more cautious in his comments. When asked if he felt he was racing against clean opponents, Dressel said, “We have to put our trust in WADA.” He added, “There’s a lot of stuff you can say in interviews that’s just going to light you up, so it’s a no-win situation for me… They were the better team, and it’s as simple as that.”
