- Mack Horton attacked anti-doping authorities
- Swimming has been rocked by a new scandal
- Chinese swimmers tested positive before the Tokyo Games
An exasperated Mack Horton has raged over the Chinese doping scandal, with the Australian Olympic legend insisting his teammates have been let down by a “failed system”.
Swimming caused a stir after it emerged that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine (TMZ), a banned substance, before the Tokyo Olympics three years ago.
Despite this, they were allowed to compete as they were not provisionally suspended. Team China won three gold medals in swimming races involving Australians.
Horton, who criticized rival Sun Yang, China’s most famous swimmer who failed drug tests, was left furious by the news.
“This news infuriates the entire sporting community,” Horton told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Mack Horton has become enraged over swimming’s latest drug scandal.
Australian swimming star Horton criticized China’s Sun Yang during his career.
Her sentiments have been echoed by many Australian swimmers, with Emma McKeon and Ariarne Titmus taking to social media to denounce the latest development.
The World Anti-Doping Agency, known as WADA, accepted the Chinese team’s explanation that the athletes’ drug samples had been contaminated by food served to them at the team’s accommodation during their camp.
An investigation considered that the TMZ found in the samples would not have provided a significant improvement in performance.
But WADA has been accused of a lack of transparency, and Australian Shayna Jack was provisionally suspended while she was the subject of an investigation.
Twenty-three Chinese swimmers tested positive ahead of Tokyo Olympics
And Horton has called for greater accountability from relevant authorities following the latest scandal.
“People compete because they love to try hard and compete fairly,” he said.
‘The news compromises the integrity of sport in general, not just swimming. One of the best things about sport is the values and morals it instills in all of us; the misalignment observed in this incident is jarring.