The international governing body of swimming has said that its executive director, Brent Nowicki, has been called to testify in a US criminal inquiry concerning 23 Chinese swimmers who were disqualified from competition in 2021 due to doping testing, but were permitted to compete and win medals at the Tokyo Olympics.
According to World Aquatics, Nowicki is “working to schedule a meeting with the government, which, in all likelihood, will obviate the need for testimony before a Grand Jury” after receiving a subpoena.
It was reported that the Chinese swimmers tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug trimetazidine, which is prohibited, several months prior to the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Out of the 23 Chinese swimmers, eleven are expected to compete in the Olympics in Paris in 2024.
The pressing issue
At a national swimming tournament in 2021, the 23 participants tested positive for trimetazidine, albeit at a “very low concentration”, according to China’s anti-doping organization.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has prohibited metazidine since 2014 despite the drug’s ability to increase endurance. Yet, the agency determined that because the swimmers unintentionally came into contact with the substance, they could not be held accountable for the outcomes.
Travis Tygart, the CEO of the US Anti-Doping Agency, recently expressed concern that China’s anti-doping agency, CHINADA, and WADA were collaborating to conceal the positive test results; it was also suggested that WADA representatives were reluctant to visit the US for fear of arrest.
WADA president Witold Baűka stated earlier this year at a news conference that the organization “followed all due processes and diligently investigated every lead and line of enquiry in this matter” and discovered “no evidence of wrongdoing… and no credible way to disprove the contamination theory that was accepted by CHINADA.”
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Source: CNN