Shortly after the Chinese Swimming Federation announced its 31-member roster for the 2024 Olympic Games, Australian head coach Rohan Taylor He spoke to the press about the doping scandal engulfing the Asian nation.
As we reported, 11 players on the newly-named Paris roster for China were among 23 athletes who tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine (TMZ) at the start of the calendar year in 2020, roughly seven months before the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
China's anti-doping agency ChinaADA did not ban the swimmers after traces of TMZ were reportedly found in the hotel where the swimmers stayed. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) upheld ChinaADA's decision.
However, Taylor told the national broadcaster that the situation would likely be on the minds of athletes and coaches as the swimming competitions get underway in Paris next month. ABC“I think for us, internally, we can only control what we can control.
“The story is very clear, and that's all we can do. We have to trust that WADA and World Aquatics will continue to investigate, and that we are committed to a clean sport.”
“That’s where we are at the moment, and we’ll continue to keep an eye on it, but as far as the competition distracting us, I think it’s not something we can control.
“I think it would be a distraction, it's probably a waste of energy.”
“The way I look at it is we’re going to compete,” Taylor added.
“If somebody is not doing the right thing, we expect the system to catch them and that’s basically how we work because our people are checked all the time as well, so we’re in the same boat.”
Major matches of the Australian team against the Chinese team include Emma McKeon taking on Zhang Yufei Explained Women's 100m fly Jack Stubblety-Cook Duel with von Schweizer Qin Haiyang In the men's 200m breaststroke.