Michael Phelps, a famous Olympian swimmer, testified before Congress that years of doping accusations affected his mental health. He now feels that Chinese sportsmen are abusing an unjust system by engaging in these unlawful acts.
The athlete admitted: “The constant suspicion of doping deeply eroded the mental state it took a lifetime to build while competing at the highest levels.”
Prior to the August Olympics in Paris, Phelps and swimmer Allison Schmidt testified before a House subcommittee investigating a doping case involving Chinese athletes. He further declared: “As athletes, our faith can no longer be blindly placed in the world of the anti-doping agency, an organization that continues to prove that it is either incapable or unwilling to enforce its policies consistently around the world.”
Phelps: ‘We need to hold them responsible’
The primetime hearing took place two months after the World Anti-Doping Agency discovered that, prior to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive for the prohibited substance trimetazidine, which is present in cardiac medication. The medication promotes ‘cardiac efficiency.’
According to CHINADA, China’s anti-doping body, the swimmers were unintentionally exposed to a hotel’s contamination and therefore shouldn’t be held accountable for the positive test results.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) responded by saying they had accepted the judgment of Chinese officials to clear the swimmers, citing contamination in the food they ate.
With this, global athletes continue to be suspicious and wonder why China withheld the information that its swimmers were at risk at the time.
Schmitt said: “We raced hard. We trained hard. We followed every protocol. We respected their performance and accepted our defeat… But now, learning that the Chinese relay consisted of athletes who had not served a suspension, I look back with doubt. We may never know the truth and that may haunt many of us for years.”
Source: Daily Mail