No faith in anti-doping system, says swimmer Adam Peaty after China take final gold

PARIS – Three-time Olympic gold medallist Adam Peaty called for stricter dope testing and said he had no faith in the system after China won the final men’s swimming race of the Paris Games and Britain missed out on a medal in fourth place.

Asked whether he was speaking in anger and frustration, Peaty indicated at La Defense Arena that there was more to it.

“We’ve got to have faith in the system, but we also don’t. It’s just got to be stricter,” he said after the men’s 4x100m medley relay.

The Chinese swim team have been under intense scrutiny since revelations in April that 23 of their swimmers tested positive for a banned heart medication before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics but were allowed to compete.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) accepted the findings of a Chinese investigation that the results were due to contamination from a hotel kitchen, and an independent review backed Wada’s handling of the case.

The New York Times also reported last week that two of the country's swimmers tested positive in 2022 for a banned steroid, also blamed on contaminated food, but had provisional suspensions lifted.

China’s anti-doping agency has since accused the United States newspaper of politicising doping issues and said the publication was trying to “affect the psychology” of Chinese athletes at the Olympics.

“One of my favourite quotes I’ve seen lately is there’s no point in winning if you don’t win it fair. And you know that truth in your heart,” said Peaty, who narrowly missed out in his bid for a third successive 100 metres breaststroke gold when he took the silver in Paris.

“So for me, if... you have been contaminated twice, I think as an honourable person, you should be out of the sport.”

The 29-year-old said he did not want to tar a whole nation or group of people with one brush, but that the two reported cases were very disappointing.

He said: “If you’re cheating, it’s fraud. And it’s not about the podium, because whoever’s in the race, I expect in my head it has to be fair to be there. And we did our best job as a team to do that.”

China ended the meet fifth in the medal table with 12 medals but only two golds, compared with 28 medals for the United States, including eight golds. Australia, France and Canada were all ahead of China on golds won.

Britain took only five medals and one gold, in the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay. China finished fourth in that race.

Nine-gold medallist Caeleb Dressel, on the US team who took silver behind China in the Aug 4 relay, was more guarded in his comments. “We have to put our trust in Wada,” the 27-year-old said, when asked if he felt he was racing against clean opponents.

“There’s a lot of stuff you can say in interviews that’s just going to light you up, so it’s a no-win situation for me... They were the better team, and it’s as simple as that.” REUTERS