World Aquatics confirms US government has launched criminal investigation into Chinese swimmers’ doping case: AP

CNN
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The International Swimming Federation said its executive director, Brent Nowicki, will testify in a U.S. criminal investigation into a case involving 23 Chinese swimmers who failed doping tests in 2021 but were allowed to continue competing and win medals at the Tokyo Olympics, the Associated Press reports.

World Aquatics says Nowicki has been served with a subpoena and is “working to arrange a meeting with the government, which will likely eliminate the need for him to testify before a grand jury.”

According to a New York Times report published in April in coordination with ARD, the Chinese swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine, a banned performance-enhancing substance, several months before the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

Eleven of the 23 Chinese swimmers will participate in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

China’s anti-doping agency said it found “extremely low levels” of trimetazidine in 23 athletes at a national swimming competition in 2021. Trimetazidine has the potential to increase endurance and has been banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) since 2014. However, the agency ruled that the swimmers were not responsible for the results because they were accidentally exposed to the drug.

In May, the U.S. House of Representatives Special Committee on China asked the FBI and the Justice Department to investigate the case under a 2020 law that allows for the prosecution of individuals who help athletes dope in international competitions, even if the doping did not take place in the United States.

“We cannot comment on the reported federal investigation,” Travis Tygart, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, said in a statement to CNN on Thursday.

“The Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act was passed in 2021 with broad support from athletes, sports and multinational governments because WADA could not be trusted to be a strong, fair global regulator to protect clean athletes and fair sport,” Tygart said.

Tygart, who has blamed WADA and China’s anti-doping agency CHINADA for covering up the positive tests, suggested in his statement that WADA officials were afraid to travel to the United States for fear of questioning by law enforcement.

In a press conference earlier this year, WADA President Witold Bańka said the agency had “followed all due procedures and carefully investigated every lead and line of investigation in this matter” and found “no evidence of wrongdoing … and no credible way to refute the contamination theory accepted by CHINADA”.

WADA was informed of the positive tests in June 2021, about a month before the start of the Tokyo Games.

CNN has reached out to World Aquatics, the Department of Justice and WADA for comment on the news of the investigation.