When suspicions of doping arise in the Olympics, the focus often shifts from the medal-winning athletes to those who may have missed out on their rightful place on the podium. Recently, The New York Times conducted an investigation revealing a concerning case involving 23 top Chinese swimmers testing positive for a potent banned substance in 2021, just months before the Tokyo Olympics.
The swimmers, constituting roughly half of China’s swimming team at the Games, were cleared to compete by both China’s antidoping authorities and the World Anti-Doping Agency. This revelation has not only sparked alarm within the antidoping community but has also raised questions about the impacted athletes and the subsequent implications on the medals they earned.
As of now, there have been no changes to the outcomes of the events involving the Chinese swimmers who tested positive. By cross-referencing the names of the 23 swimmers with the results from the Games, The Times identified five events where Chinese swimmers who had tested positive for banned substances secured medals:
- Women’s 100-meter Butterfly: Zhang Yufei clinched a silver medal in this event, marking the first of her four medals at the Tokyo Games. Torri Huske from the United States narrowly missed out on her first Olympic medal, finishing fourth by just one-hundredth of a second.
