Australian coach Dennis, who is currently coaching the Chinese swimming team, was interviewed and denounced the false reports of Chinese swimmers in the European and American media about the Chinese swimmers' involvement in drugs, because it was pure food contamination. Dennis said there is a high risk of food contamination in China, so swimmers are not allowed to eat anything other than what is provided by the national training base.
Since the age of 14, Chinese swimmers have not been allowed to eat in public because the food can be contaminated with substances on the WADA banned list, Dennis said. He also said that according to a coach who was present, the food contamination incident in which 23 athletes tested positive for trimetazidine in early 2021 was due to "very poor kitchen conditions" at the Shijiazhuang training camp. (At that time, the epidemic period was special)
The Australian coach told Australian reporters that food safety is unguarded: "Anyone who has been to China knows that pollution is a problem, and that's an unfortunate aspect here. A lot of athletes know that they can't eat on the street. If it's contaminated, it's unfortunate. It's really, really sad because that's the risk, and it's clearly happened. ”
When asked if all the food was for Chinese swimmers, Dennis said, "Absolutely. If they go to camp and the chef is there, they will be 100% confident that they are not eating the wrong food. This is an ongoing risk. They are not allowed to eat outside. When they get on the plane, they can't eat food. ”
Dennis also tells a little story that is both funny and poignant: "They were recently delayed, starved for 6 hours, stuck at the airport, and couldn't go anywhere to eat any food. The national training base had to prepare food and deliver it to the airport for the children to eat. This is their daily life. These are the precautions and sacrifices they take to avoid this risk. ”