The Chinese government-owned Global Times newspaper on Tuesday blamed swimmer Zhang Yufei’s poor performance during her race in the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics on “crazy smears” and “media warfare” against their athletes following failed doping tests in 2021.
Zhang competed in the women’s 100-meter butterfly race on Sunday, earning the bronze medal. She was bested in that race by two Americans, gold medalist Torri Huske and silver medalist Gretchen Walsh. Zhang is still expected to compete in the upcoming women’s 50-meter freestyle race and the 200-meter butterfly, where she is the Olympic record holder.
The Global Times told the story of her bronze-medal finish as a tragedy created by “media bias” following her and another 22 Chinese team swimmers testing positive for a banned substance, trimetazidine (TMZ), shortly before the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics. The relevant Chinese athletic authorities denied that the athletes had taken any performance-enhancing drugs (TMZ is a substance typically used for heart conditions) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accepted the explanation, allowing them to compete.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) has not let the issue go, however, demanding investigations into the situation. Concerns from American athletes prompted Congress to hold a hearing in May, and the Justice Department ultimately opened a criminal investigation into the matter in July.
The Global Times condemned the persistence of questions regarding the athletes’ positive substance tests on Tuesday, claiming that Zhang had to overcome “intense Western scrutiny, crazy smears, rigorous and excessive doping tests, and the fact that the US Justice Department has even opened a criminal probe into an alleged sports doping scandal involving nearly two dozen elite Chinese swimmers.”
“Facing enormous pressure and a horrible Western media attack, this young lady withstood the stress and clinched the bronze medal,” the propaganda newspaper declared. “She kept a warm smile for the cameras throughout. It was only when she passed by the Chinese spectators that her eyes began to shimmer with tears.”
Zhang herself did not mention the doping scandal – a fact the Global Times noted while adding, “we cannot ignore the underlying factors affecting athletes’ performances: the media warfare, unfair testing frequency, and the high ratio of exemptions for certain medications in the US.”
The Times claimed that the United States, which is not hosting or administering the Paris Olympics in any capacity, had weaponized “relentless and unethical testing” against Chinese athletes because cheating is part of the “rule-based liberal international order dominated by the US.” The state newspaper did not clarify how testing athletes who have tested positive for a banned substance more often than those who have not aids America’s geopolitical goals, nor did it address the fact that France is hosting the event alongside the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which has historically defended China from a long list of accusations of human rights abuses and other scandals.
While not mentioning France in the swimming article, the Global Times took the opportunity earlier in the week to denigrate French culture, blaming an allegedly French “sense of relaxation” for a slew of errors at the Games, including organizers confusing North Korea with South Korea and identifying an Argentine swimmer as Chinese.
The commentary on Zhang’s defeat focused on condemning America, however, for promoting the allegedly “relentless and unethical testing” of athletes.
The Global Times also cited one of its stable of regular, regime-approved “experts” to declare that drug testing “disrupted the Chinese swimming team’s precompetition training, which is a disgrace to the Olympics.” The article did not offer any information on the “expert,” Fudan University professor Shen Yi, that would clarify how he would have known this to be the case. Fudan University lists Shen as a professor of international politics and does not ascribe to him any position of expertise in competitive swimming or athletics generally.
The Chinese state outlet railed against the United States as a political entity while omitting that American athletes have been largely supportive of calls to investigate the Chinese athletes’ positive tests. Olympic athletes have testified to their concerns before Congress on multiple occasions.
“Right now people are just getting away with everything. How is that possible?” Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, who has won more Olympic medals than any other athlete in history, said at a hearing in May. “It makes no sense. I’m one [who believes] if someone does test positive, I’d like to see a lifetime ban.”
Phelps appeared before Congress again in late June, condemning WADA for “deeply rooted, systemic problems that prove detrimental to the integrity of international sports and athletes’ right to fair competition, time and time again.”
U.S. Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky, a seven-time gold medalist, expressed concerns at a press conference shortly before the Games began, asking, “I hope everyone here is going to be competing clean here this week, but what really matters also is were they training clean?”
The IOC and WADA issued a joint statement on July 24, shortly before the start of the Games, absolving themselves of any wrongdoing, particularly in the handling of the Chinese athletes. WADA President Witold Bańka insisted that “WADA did not show any bias, undue interference or other impropriety in its assessment of the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency’s decision not to bring forward anti-doping rule violations.”
“WADA’s decision not to appeal the cases in the Court of Arbitration for Sport was indisputably reasonable, based on the evidence,” Bańka insisted, citing the conclusion of an “independent prosecutor” appointed by WADA to investigate the matter.
The United States is at press time leading the global medal count, winning 28 medals at the Paris Olympics. China, with 16 medals, is leading the gold medal count, however, with eight.
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