Foreign media, such as The New York Times, has been making false doping accusations targeting two Chinese swimmers involved in a case that was proved to be a food contamination incident in 2022. The athletes were subjected to routine drug test the day after they had Coke, hamburgers and fries together at a restaurant in Beijing in early October that year. The result came back positive for an anabolic steroid the following month, The New York Times reported in July.
The accusations, although denied by the WADA, led to more frequent than normal doping tests for Chinese swimmers before and during the Paris Games.
Regarding being tested frequently in Paris, backstroke veteran Xu Jiayu said the athletes have no problem with that. “We follow the rules. I don’t want to make any excuses. We did overcome some challenges,” he said.
