The Chinese state-run propaganda magazine Global Times accused international athletes and staff at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Monday of “racial determinism” for expressing concern in public regarding the fact that Chinese athletes who tested positive for banned substances were allowed to compete.
Communist China has for years faced widespread allegations, corroborated by whistleblowers in their own program, that their athletes have used banned substances to enhance their performances, particularly at the Olympics. During this year’s Paris Summer Games, the doping allegations have plagued Chinese swimming after the leftist New York Times newspaper published a report in April revealing that 23 Chinese swimmers competed in the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics after testing positive for trimetazidine (TMZ), a drug used to treat heart conditions that can also help improve athletic performance. TMZ is not approved for any use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), though the FDA granted it “orphan drug” in 2018 for use in cases of chronic liver failure. An “orphan drug” is a drug for rare conditions whose approval has stalled, often for financial incentive reasons.
China’s Sun Jiajun competes in the men’s 4×100-meter medley relay final at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, on August 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Of the athletes implicated, the New York Times reported at the time, “many still compete for China and several, including the two-time gold medalist Zhang Yufei, are expected to contend for medals again at this year’s Summer Games in Paris.”
In late July, the New York Times revealed that two Chinese swimmers, one of whom is competing in Paris, once again tested positive for an anabolic steroid but both were “secretly cleared of doping late last year by Chinese authorities.”
Chinese anti-doping authorities cleared the tainted athletes, the reports stated, on the grounds that they accidentally ingested the substances through contaminated food, an excuse many in the international swimming community, including elite American swimmers and anti-doping officials, have questioned.
The Chinese government-controlled Olympic authorities had for years faced allegations of illicit substance abuse, however, long before the New York Times reports, some based on defecting employees. In 2017, a former doctor for the Chinese Olympics team, Xue Yinxian, made public declarations suggesting that thousands of people involved in China’s Olympics infrastructure were involved in massive, systematic doping.
“There must have been more than 10,000 people involved,” Germany’s Deutsche Welle quoted Xue as telling the German broadcaster ARD. “All international medals (won by Chinese athletes in that time) should be taken back.”
Trumpeting Chinese Olympic achievements this summer both in and out of the pool, the Global Times suggested that questioning the athletes was a form of racial discrimination, as it assumed that people of Han Chinese descent were at a genetic disadvantage in athletics.
“Chinese athletes have successively won gold medals in swimming, tennis and other sports that were largely dominated by the West in the past, representing the overall improvement of China’s competitive sports level,” the Chinese state newspaper asserted.
Zhanle Pan of China won a gold medal in the Men’s 100m Freestyle final on day five of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Paris La Defense Arena on July 31, 2024 in Nanterre, France. (Image Photo Agency/Getty Images)
“Unsurprisingly, in the face of the outstanding performance and transcendence of Chinese players, some Westerners were overwhelmed and showed their paranoid and narrow-mindedness,” the Global Times continued, signaling out Australian swim coach Brett Hawke, who questioned the decisive victory by Chinese swimmer Pan Zhanle in last week’s 100m freestyle race.
“It just doesn’t make sense for many reasons,” Hawke told Sky News. “There’s no evidence to say that he’s [Pan] tested positive, but there’s evidence to say that drugs have to be involved here.”
“Hawke’s remarks are not worth refuting, as the actual performance of Chinese athletes like Liu Xiang and Su Bingtian has already shattered the Western so-called ‘racial determinism,’” the Global Times responded.
“This bizarre mindset of ‘you cannot beat me, otherwise you are cheating’ does not only exist in sports competitions. Over the years, we have seen similar performances on many issues,” the state outlet continued, comparing the doping scandal to extensively documented intellectual property theft by Chinese actors in aerospace and other key economic and national security sectors.
“These fundamentally stem from the inability to face and acknowledge China’s development achievements, leading to distorted fantasies,” the Global Times claimed.
The article concluded by implying that those concerned about the evidence of banned substance abuse were lazy.
“When faced with competition, instead of choosing to train harder, choosing to find ways to disqualify the opponent reflects not only a narrow mind and lack of generosity, but also to some extent reflects how this country has achieved success in the past,” the Global Times asserted.
Zhang Yufei, of China, competes during a heat in the women’s 200-meter butterfly at the 2024 Summer Olympics on July 31, 2024, in Nanterre, France. (Ashley Landis/AP)
While using Hawke’s remarks as an example, the Australian swimming coach was far from the only person questioning the legitimacy of the Chinese team’s performance. In remarks to media on Saturday, British swimmer Adam Peaty unloaded on the Chinese team after their victory in the 4×100-meter medley relay, which they won including two swimmers implicated in banned substance testing.
“In sport, one of my favorite quotes I’ve seen lately is ‘There’s no point in winning if you don’t win it fair,’” Peaty said. “I think you know that truth in your heart. Even if you touch and you know you’re cheating, you’re not winning, right? So, for me, if you’ve been on that and you have been contaminated twice, I think as an honorable person it means you should be out of the sport. We know sport is not that simple.”
“I don’t want to paint a whole nation or a whole group of people with one brush, I think it’s very unfair,” Peaty continued. “But there have been two cases of it and I think it’s very disappointing, and I’ve tried to keep out of the conversations until now for the betterment of the team but I think we’re going to use that to our advantage the next four years, whether I’m there or not. I know these boys will carry that.”
Before the Olympics – testifying before Congress on doping concerns this year – Michael Phelps, America’s most decorated Olympian, said that global drug-testing authorities were not doing enough to maintain the integrity of sports.
“Right now people are just getting away with everything. How is that possible?” Phelps told Congress 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 global doping authorities for “deeply rooted, systemic problems that prove detrimental to the integrity of international sports and athletes’ right to fair competition, time and time again.”