Time to Probe into US Swimmers’ Doping Dispute
The 2024 Paris Summer Olympics is ongoing, while the games between major powers outside the arenas have once again caused heated discussions. In fact, both the Classical Olympic Games during the Greek city-state period and the modern Olympic Games are closely related to international politics.
To some extent, since ancient Greek times, such large-scale competitive sports were originally intended as military exercises, even as substitutes for military confrontations, allowing participants to compete in non-lethal ways.
In the era of cold weapons, at the classical Olympic Games, city-states sent their best warriors to compete in events like the javelin throw, showcasing who could throw the furthest. The message conveyed during wartime was very clear: throwing the javelin far meant strong combat ability. Since the advent of the modern era with hot weapons, we no longer frequently see such contests of martial arts skills and combat techniques. Instead, confrontations are now conducted by pulling the trigger.
In modern warfare, with missiles, it only takes pressing a button to eliminate the enemy from thousands of miles away. There’s a famous scene in the American movie Starship Troopers where a character says, “In space warfare, you just press a button. Why are you still teaching me to throw a knife?” The instructor then asks him to place his hand next to the button and tells everyone to watch closely. He then throws a knife, pinning the character’s hand to the control panel. The instructor explains, “Our job is to pin his hand with the knife before he can press the button.”
Therefore, since ancient times, the Olympics have been a form of non-violent confrontation between nations in the West. The 1936 Olympic Games were held in Berlin at a time when the Nazis had already come to power in Germany, leading to the famous incident involving Jesse Owens. Adolf Hitler was promoting his notorious racial superiority theory. He suggested that the explosiveness, endurance, and stamina of German athletes conveyed through sports competitions were due to the superior genes of the Aryan race. As a result, when the African American athlete Jesse Owens won gold and set records, Hitler refused to shake his hand.
Jesse Owens set a world record of 10.2 seconds on June 20, 1936. | Photo: AP
During the Cold War era, the Olympics became a battlefield between the United States and the Soviet Union. The 2019 Polish film “The Coldest Game” depicts the rivalry between the US and the USSR in the realm of chess. In the movie, President Reagan calls the game venue directly from the White House, asking if they had won. When informed that the Soviet player was leading, the scene cuts to Moscow, where Brezhnev is shown opening his long-cherished whiskey in anticipation of celebrating a Soviet victory. This illustrates that competitive sports naturally carry an undertone of great power rivalry.
A scene from The Coldest Game, with American and Soviet players playing against each other. | Picture: MUBI
Of course, after the Cold War ended, peace and development became the main themes of the era, leading to an emphasis on comfort and relaxation. However, in my view, true relaxation and comfort come only after winning gold medals, securing victories, and achieving good rankings. Especially in the context of the Olympics, blindly promoting self-indulgence and a lie-flat attitude without considering specific competitions is tantamount to giving up.
China also places great importance on the Olympics. In the mindset of the Chinese, the Olympics is supposed to be a fair competition in the international arena, where everyone competes based on a set of established rules and wins through their abilities. Of course, “abilities” refer to those within the allowed scope of the rules and align with the common understanding of competitive sports. Using performance-enhancing drugs, relying on biased judgments by referees, or employing underhanded tactics do not count.
Regarding this Paris Olympics, how should we understand victory and defeat? Certainly, we can applaud human achievements in breaking physical limits in a pure and idealistic way. However, it is also important to clarify which victories and defeats fall under the scope of great power strategic competition, and which events might involve external influences or underhanded tactics. Otherwise, China will inevitably have to compromise and accept unfavorable outcomes passively again and again.
There are several aspects of this year’s Olympics that everyone should pay close attention to.
The first aspect is the weaponization of doping tests. The goal is not to catch doping but to use the testing process to disrupt the training of Chinese athletes and thwart them from performing well. This is then supported by biased media and internet trolls to stigmatize China.
Chinese swimmer Zhang Yufei was interviewed before the competition regarding the doping tests, and she called on the public not to view Chinese swimming with prejudice. |Photo: Xinhua News Agency
Shortly before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, the Chinese swimming team had just arrived in Paris and needed to acclimate to the venue, train, and adjust their physical and psychological conditions for competition. However, each swimmer was subjected to an average of 5-7 urine tests per day, with intervals of a few hours between tests. This routine continued daily, resulting in 200 tests over 10 days, averaging 20 tests per day.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) mandates that in high-risk areas, 75% of athletes should undergo frequent testing, generally three times a day. However, the frequency of testing for Chinese athletes far exceeds this, with conservative estimates being more than double the normal requirement. Additionally, as many as 95% of Chinese athletes were tested.
In such circumstances, the so-called fairness is nothing but bullshit.
American athletes might be tested only three times throughout the entire game, while Chinese athletes face 5-7 tests in a single day. Furthermore, the testing agencies are different: American athletes can be tested by their national anti-doping agency, while Chinese athletes cannot. The New York Times has been propagandizing on the side, repeatedly implying that the food additives tested positve among Chinese athletes are problematic, even though WADA has found no abnormality.
In stark contrast, when American athletes test positive for banned substances that are not on the exemption list, they can often explain it away with common medical conditions such as asthma, ADHD, or congenital heart disease. The punitive mechanism works in such a way that, in the first stage, they are found to be in violation, but in the second stage, the final ruling often exempts them due to claims of food contamination.
This is what we call unfairness. Inside the arena, the weaponized doping testing mechanism disrupts the Chinese team’s training and preparation. Outside the arena, there is overwhelming stigmatization.
Next comes the bullying among athletes. French swimming champion Léon Marchand ignored Chinese coach Zhu Zhigen and refused to shake hands. It was only after the situation escalated and online public opinion overwhelmingly criticized him that Marchand personally visited the Chinese delegation to apologize.
Source: CCTV
In contrast, after a race, Chinese swimmer Wang Shun immediately shook hands with French President Emmanuel Macron, who was watching from the sidelines.
Source: CCTV
Chinese swimmer Pan Zhanle won the gold medal in the 100m freestyle and broke the world record. After the race, Australian coach Brett Hawke had a meltdown, posting a video on Instagram claiming that Pan’s performance was suspicious and insinuating that he must have been doping. However, he later deleted the posts and videos.
Source: The Daily Telegraph
Such Western athletes exhibit passive-aggressive behavior by refusing to shake hands with their Chinese counterparts and intentionally stepping aside, displaying a complete lack of courtesy. Certain coaches engage in bullying Chinese athletes using tactics laced with racial stereotypes and deep-seated racial prejudice. The underlying sentiment seems to be: “This prestigious competition is meant for superior Caucasians to win. How could you inferior Asians possibly win?! There’s no way you could be faster than me, even if I were on drugs! You must be doping too!”
Based on these behaviors, it seems that racial superiority theories did not completely disappear with the downfall of Nazi Germany.
These actions are unfair, contradict the spirit of the Olympics, and violate fundamental sports ethics and morals. Such behaviors were distorted and pathological outcomes resulting from a fearful reaction from the West to China’s rise, compounded by longstanding racism and condescending arrogance towards non-Western countries and people of color.
These actions pollute and desecrate the spirit of the Olympics and the broader sportsmanship for all humanity. This desecration is more severe than the offense to Christianity caused by the display of LGBT values and the lavish Dionysian revelry at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony.
The United States, which frequently emphasizes so-called rules, lacks the courage to confront its decline. Facing political decay and deep social polarization, it is unable to effectively address internal issues. Instead, it projects its frustrations onto imagined adversaries, resorting to base and humiliating tactics in sports competitions, and engaging in severe defamation, insults, and smear campaigns against Chinese athletes to vent its sense of defeat and powerlessness.
Fortunately, China’s Generation Z athletes have withstood the pressure, not only fighting back with words but also winning numerous gold medals and breaking several world records, countering these discriminatory and obstructive actions with actual achievements. Otherwise, Western critics would launch a cognitive war to undermine the value of all of China’s achievements.
Therefore, China needs to take several actions. On one hand, athletes must endure the insults and burdens, striving to showcase their top-notch abilities. On the other hand, at the national level, efforts must be made to alleviate the pressure on athletes and to prevent doping tests that aim to interfere with their training and preparations.
China must safeguard its legitimate rights and cannot passively accept the malicious abuse of international rules. Chinese media need to make their voices heard clearly and assertively. This message should be directed at the WADA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ensure their awareness of China’s discontent.
The IOC and the WADA are not entities with supra-sovereign authority, rather, they are NGOs that rely on commercial activities for their existence, particularly for the IOC. If it loses a significant market like China would severely impact its revenue and overall value.
While China is not advocating for a boycott of the Olympics, but to assert itself and negotiate with these organizations. After all, athletes from non-Western countries are all likely to become targets of weaponized doping testing at any moment—just as Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt did in the past.
The distortion of sports rules by the U.S. is already a public nuisance that will not cease on its own. Tolerating such behavior only encourages further escalation, with U.S. legislators already beginning to pressure the WADA. Surely, conscientious individuals worldwide will not tolerate America’s brutal bullying of an international organization. A nation needs to step forward and rally global opposition against such behaviors.
If the U.S. persists in such bullying behavior, it seriously threatens the Olympic spirit. Unless it corrects its mistakes and adopts a proper attitude, it should no longer remain a member of the international Olympic community. The world should unite to expel the bad guy.
China now has the confidence to view the West with an equal attitude, approaching and appreciating these competitions with both confidence and rationality, while keenly identifying any unfairness. The simple aspiration of the Chinese people is the pursuit of a better life. And what is at the core of a better life? It is fairness, fairness, and more fairness.
Today, China, when confronted with these unfair actions and the abuse of anti-doping mechanisms, should not merely resort to the passive resistance of venting emotions or boycotting events. Instead, China should propose its own solutions.
The relevant regulations and rules need to be further improved. To emphasize fairness, it should be completely open and transparent. Which athletes from which countries have applied for drug exemptions, what proportion does this account for in the national team of that country, and how many of those with drug exemptions have won medals? Among those who ranked in the top three, did anyone apply for a drug exemption? Everyone can calculate by themselves.
Of course, to protect athletes’ privacy, there is no need to mention the type of drug or the specific disease, but an identifiable label is required. For instance, place an easily recognizable purple label to mark all the “purple-faced” people among the award-winning athletes.
Many American swimmers’ faces turned purple when the races finished, which aroused widespread curiosity and doubts among netizens on social media. | Source: CCTV
It might not be possible to completely end these privileges, but at the very least, those who benefit from them should be clearly identified. The International Anti-Doping Agency is under significant pressure, but is it too much to ask to mark out these privileges? For the IOC, which seeks to highlight its independence, and for WADA, which aims to emphasize its fairness, as well as for everyone calling for a cleaner, fairer, and more just international sports environment, shouldn’t this be a direction for collective effort?
The WADA is under great pressure from the US. So it might not be possible to completely cancel the privileges, but at the very least, those who are privileged should be clearly identified. Isn’t this supposed to be the common direction of efforts for the IOC which wants to highlight its independence, for the WADA which wants to highlight its fairness, and for all those who call for a cleaner, fairer, and more just international sports environment?
If not feasible this time, how about starting from the next Olympic Games? If it’s not practical next time either, what about a roadmap to give everyone something to look forward to? Is that okay? Improving the relevant rules and regulations as soon as possible is the greatest respect for the Olympic spirit.
Everyone should make their best efforts to create a fairer, more just, and cleaner Olympic environment. In this environment, we can all strive towards the shared values of humanity—higher, faster, stronger, and more united. If you agree that everyone should push for this within their capacity and collectively build a better Olympics with our own hands, it will make the games more enjoyable for all. We can truly celebrate athletes who demonstrate their skills and embody the pure spirit of sports in the pursuit of self-improvement, regardless of their race, ethnicity, or color. I believe this is a goal worth striving for together.
