Michael Phelps says China’s doping scandal threatens Olympics: NPR

Legendary Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps told a US House panel on Tuesday night that the Olympic Games could be exposed if sports doping is allowed to continue.

Phelps testified, “If we let this slide any further, we won’t even have the Olympic Games.”

The session followed revelations in recent weeks that top Chinese swimmers competing at next month’s Paris Summer Olympics repeatedly tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

The world anti-doping agency known as WADA acknowledges that some elite Chinese swimmers have tested positive for two banned substances in the past few years.

The results of the tests were kept secret and the athletes were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Summer Games in 2021.

Eleven of those Chinese athletes have now qualified for China’s national team and are expected to swim head-to-head against American athletes again in Paris, according to US officials.

Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time with 28 medals, including 23 gold, retired after swimming at the 2016 Summer Games. He told MPs that there is a need for comprehensive reform in the international system designed to catch fraudsters.

“Right now, people are turning away from everything,” he said. “How is that possible? It doesn’t make sense. I’m one of those (who believes) that if someone tests positive, I would like to see a lifetime ban.”

WADA officials have denied any wrongdoing and said Chinese athletes were accidentally contaminated with banned substances.

Doping officials have not provided a clear explanation as to how this happened again and again. Critics also say WADA officials violated international sporting rules by not disclosing positive test results, even if the exposure was accidental.

US lawmakers say WADA representatives were invited to testify at yesterday’s hearing and refused.

Travis Tygart, head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency – which monitors American athletes and punishes them if they cheat – testified that WADA failed for years to appropriately punish Chinese and Russian sports teams. who regularly use performance-enhancing drugs.

“Russia and China are too big to fail in (WADA’s) eyes and unfortunately they get a different set of rules than the rest of the world,” Tygart said.

Tygart and US lawmakers also called for major reforms to WADA.

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics was also affected by a doping scandal, when star Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva was allowed to compete despite a previous positive test for a performance-enhancing drug.

Kamila Valieva, of the Russian Olympic Committee, competes in the women’s free skate program during the figure skating competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing on February 17, 2022. He was allowed to compete despite testing positive at an event before the start of the Winter Games.

Natacha Pisarenko/AP

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Natacha Pisarenko/AP

Valieva was later disqualified, but a formal announcement of awarding the US team gold figure skating medals has been delayed due to the turmoil surrounding the incident. A medal ceremony for the American skaters is ultimately expected to take place during the Paris Games, which begin on July 26.

WADA officials have rejected calls for reforms and say they have handled cases involving Chinese and Russian athletes impartially.

The Chinese doping scandal continues to escalate just weeks before athletes from around the world travel to Paris.

American swimmer Allison Schmidt, who won four Olympic gold medals, testified Tuesday that American athletes have lost faith that these Summer Games will be fair.

“There is no trust,” Schmidt said. “What we ask for is trust, accountability and transparency.”

Schmidt himself swam with the U.S. relay team that lost the gold medal to China at the Tokyo Olympics.

Some of the Chinese swimmers who won that race were among the athletes who secretly tested positive for banned substances.

Schmidt said the fear that he and his teammates have been unfairly “robbed” of their Olympic gold is tragic.

“We just want fairness in sports,” Schmidt told lawmakers. “I hope I have kids in sports who know they’re competing on a fair playing field.”