On April 22, local time, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) held an online press conference at its headquarters in Montreal to explain the previously rumored positive doping test of Chinese swimmers, WADA reiterated their position at the press conference - this is a pollution incident, and WADA said that it may file a defamation lawsuit against the United States Anti-Doping Agency.
During the nearly two-hour online press conference, a WADA spokesperson said that trimetazidine was detected in a container in the hotel kitchen, while none of the athletes in other hotels tested positive on the same day. Therefore, the positive case of 23 Chinese swimmers before the Tokyo Olympics was determined to be a pollution incident.
WADA personnel were unable to travel to the scene to conduct an independent investigation due to the lockdown of the pandemic, and they relied on an investigation report from the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) confirming that the case was due to collective food contamination.
In response to questions from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, WADA said it would not publish no-fault cases and had done the same in similar cases before.
In response to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's (USDA) challenge and defamation, WADA said it is still studying the possibility of filing a defamation lawsuit against the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and other agencies.
Immediately after the WADA press conference, the United States Anti-Doping Agency responded, and CEO Travis Tygart (Travis Tygart) was very dissatisfied with WADA's handling, calling this treatment a "potential cover-up" and welcoming WADA's legal action.