- Grant Hackett criticized the cover-up of the doping scandal at the Tokyo Games
- Chinese swimmers tested positive in 23 anti-doping tests but were released
- Australian women could rise from bronze medalists to silver medalists
Grant Hackett has attacked the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and China over a Chinese doping scandal at the Tokyo Olympics that could result in Australian women being promoted to silver medalists.
On Saturday it was revealed that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for a banned substance ahead of the Olympics but were still cleared to compete.
All evidence was collected in January 2021, before the Tokyo Games, where the swimming team won three gold medals and six in total.
The 23 positives were for trimetazidine, a drug normally used to prevent angina attacks, and the same substance for which teenage figure skater Kamila Valieva was banned for four years.
Grant Hackett (pictured) has criticized the cover-up of a Chinese doping scandal at the Tokyo Games that has rocked global sport.
Australian women could go from bronze to silver in the women’s 4x200m relay at the 2021 Olympics (pictured)
In response, WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency, said they had accepted Chinese officials’ decision to exempt the swimmers, claiming their food had been contaminated.
The news means Ariarne Titmus, Mollie O’Callaghan, Leah Neale and Madi Wilson, who won bronze medals in the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay, could move up to silver.
“You can’t go out and obviously smear everyone immediately as drug cheats, but it’s very suspicious given the circumstances and the fact that it was undisclosed and transparent, that’s what makes it more suspicious than anything else,” Hackett said. to the Herald of the sun.
“It’s like there’s nothing to hide, why don’t we reveal that a process took place, that there were people who essentially tested positive but there was contamination, so there was nothing to see here and maybe there was follow-up testing around? Should this and anything else that needs to be discussed surrounding a situation like that have been revealed (at that time).
“The fact that we are sitting here three years later and it is now only coming to light through the wrong channels, not through official channels, makes me very uneasy.”
Australian swimmer Shayna Jack was banned from competing for testing positive for a banned substance in 2019, which was later proven to be due to contamination of the substance.
Unlike the Chinese swimmers, Jack missed the Games and had to fight to save his shattered career.
Hackett says he also feels sorry for the Chinese athletes involved, who could also be victims.
Ariarne Titmus, Emma McKeon, Madi Wilson and Leah Neale pose with their bronze medals
“I actually feel sorry for several athletes in this situation,” Hackett said.
‘If no one has done anything wrong but there was no transparent process, those people are going to be tarnished with that brush.
“So if there were people doing the wrong things and taking performance-enhancing supplements or banned supplements, what about the athletes sitting around with the wrong medals around their necks?
‘In the third layer, there are people like Shayna or other people who have had problems with contaminated samples or who have had difficult times regarding these issues, but they have been dealt a different set of cards than someone else.
“That lack of consistency and what you call basically a double standard is what makes you really uncomfortable.”