Joe McConnell
Adam Peaty has cast doubt on China’s victory in the men’s 4x100m medley relay following the conclusion of the swimming event at the 2024 Olympics.
China won a thrilling race ahead of the USA and France, while Peaty’s Team GB missed out on the podium after finishing fourth.
But three-time Olympic champion Peaty, who competed alongside Oliver Morgan, Duncan Scott and Matt Richards, said afterwards: “One of my favourite quotes I’ve read lately is that there’s no point in winning unless you win fairly.”
Ahead of the Paris Games, The New York Times and German broadcaster ARD reported that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine (TMZ) seven months before the 2021 Tokyo Games but had been cleared to compete.
Those swimmers reportedly included relay gold medalists Qin and Sun Jiajun, all of whom were cleared to compete after they were found to have unknowingly ingested the drug through contaminated food.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said it could not refute the explanation given by the Chinese anti-doping agency that the positive tests were caused by athletes eating contaminated meat at a hotel used as a training center.
An independent report released in July later found that WADA had shown no bias towards China in its handling of the case.
Peaty finished off the podium in the relay
Speaking to reporters after Sunday’s relay, Peaty said: “One of my favorite quotes I’ve read lately is that there’s no point in winning unless you win fair and square. I think you know that truth in your heart.”
Apparently referring to a New York Times allegation that Qin had tested positive for a different performance-enhancing drug in 2017, which was attributed at the time to food contamination, Peaty added: “If you touch it and you know you’re cheating, you’re not winning. To me, if you’ve taken that substance and you’ve been ‘contaminated’ twice, I think as an honorable person you should be out of the sport.
“I don’t want to paint an entire nation or a group of people with one brush, I think it’s very unfair. But there have been two such cases and it’s very disappointing.
“But I think the people who have to do their job – wake up and do your job. I think we have to have faith in the system. But we don’t even have that. I think it needs to be tougher.”
Qin has previously accused his opponents of being “threatened”, saying on Chinese social media platform Weibo – as reported by the BBC: “Some tricks are aimed at disrupting our preparation pace and destroying our psychological defense. But we are not afraid.”
After winning the bronze medal in the women’s 200m butterfly on Thursday, China’s Zhang Yufei responded to team doping allegations, saying: “If anyone still doesn’t believe it, then we don’t want to discuss it further because I believe we are innocent.
“Why should Chinese athletes be suspected when they swim really fast?”
Peaty questions the future
Meanwhile, Peaty said he had endured the “worst week” of his life physically, after testing positive for Covid on Monday, after winning silver in the men’s 100m breaststroke the night before.
Asked if this would be his last Olympics, the six-time Olympic medalist said: “Tomorrow is never promised and if my heart wants it, I want it and I will sign that contract with myself to do it.
“It might be a very distant thing, but I think I’ll have to step away from the sport because this time it hurt too much.
“I’m going to take a break from everything and I don’t really know what the answer is. I’m going to take some time, if my family needs me, they need me. I don’t know, you can’t lie to your heart, but if it wants it, it wants it.”
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