The International Testing Agency (ITA) has been responsible for carrying out this monitoring in recent weeks. Specifically, the focus is on the 11 Chinese swimmers participating in these Games who tested positive during the Tokyo edition. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) does not consider those events punishable, despite numerous criticisms from the international swimming community.

It was precisely at the last Olympic meeting where Zhang Yufei won two golds and two silvers, and where Li Bingjie also secured a gold and a bronze medal. Later, Qin Haiyang shone, dominating the three breaststroke distances at last year's World Championships in Fukuoka, including setting a world record in the 200 metres.

The team's nutritionist, Yu Liang, reported on the social media platform Weibo, in a post that was later deleted, that every member of the delegation underwent at least five to seven tests upon arrival in Paris. "We had to arrive at six in the morning to undergo the tests," he lamented, expressing concern that this number of tests could affect the swimmers' performance.

These figures align with the number of doping controls that World Aquatics announced on the 15th of this month it would carry out on each of the 31 Chinese swimmers present at the Games. They set this at eight tests, not during their stay in Paris, but from 1st January until the opening ceremony, which took place yesterday.

Chinese swimmers, with the most tests in 2023

The Aquatics Integrity Unit itself, an independent body from both the International Swimming Federation and the International Olympic Committee, recently revealed the number of doping tests that international swimmers underwent in 2023. The figures are revealing: the 22 swimmers with the most tests are Chinese, starting with 46 for Haiyang, 43 for Yufei, and 42 for Bingjie.

To understand the scale of the issue, one only needs to compare these numbers with those recorded for the other most-tested athletes: Hong Kong's Siobhan Haughey underwent 17 tests, while outside the Asian continent, Summer McIntosh and Bobby Fink underwent 16 tests each.

Chinese swimmer Zhang addressed the controversy today after her preliminary heat in the 100-metre butterfly, insisting that Chinese swimmers have nothing to hide. "World Aquatics and the ITA have investigated our Chinese athletes and the entire matter many times, testing them many times before we arrived at the Paris Olympics," she told reporters through a translator.

"Each of us was tested 20 to 30 times in two months, three to four times a week on average," Zhang added, emphasising that none had tested positive. "Neither Chinese nor foreign athletes would want to destroy all the hard work they've put in over the years by doping," she added. "I'm concerned that the French might think Chinese athletes don't deserve to be on this stage; I would feel wronged if that were the case."

The case of the alleged group doping among Chinese athletes in Tokyo, however, did not come to light until last April, when an investigation by German public broadcaster ARD and the New York Times revealed that these swimmers tested positive during a local championship in early 2021, just months before the start of those Games.

The Chinese Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) attributed it to food contamination after finding traces of TMZ, the banned substance, in the kitchen of the hotel where the athletes were staying. WADA, for its part, accepted this explanation, vigorously defending itself against all accusations, including from personalities like Katie Ledecky and Michael Phelps. The case has had a profound impact on the sport, with US anti-doping authorities accusing WADA of a cover-up.