The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced on April 25 that it will invite an independent Swiss prosecutor to review WADA's handling of the top 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, and is expected to submit a report in two months.
Zhang Yufei and Li Bingjie, together with teammates Yang Junxuan and Tang Muhan, won the gold medal in the women's 4x200m freestyle relay at the Tokyo Olympics
In a statement, WADA said that the organization was subjected to unfair, prejudicial and unfounded allegations that WADA was biased in favor of China, and therefore did not appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). WADA rejects such false accusations and is willing to have the matter thoroughly examined by Eric Cottier, an experienced and respected independent prosecutor.
According to WADA's statement, Kodir is completely independent of WADA, the sports world and the government sector, with 39 years of experience. He served as Attorney General of the Swiss canton of Vaud from 2005 until his retirement in December 2022.
At the Tokyo Olympics, Zhang Yufei won the gold medal in the women's 200m butterfly and the silver medal in the 100m butterfly
WADA also announced that WADA will later send a compliance review team to China to assess anti-doping efforts, and the team will invite several independent reviewers to accompany it.
WADA confirmed on the 20th of this month that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive for trimetazidine before competing in the Tokyo Olympics. The Chinese Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) later said that the samples were caused by environmental contamination of the food, which overturned the drug test results, and the Chinese swimmers involved were allowed to continue to participate in the Tokyo Olympics.
In the mixed 4x100m medley relay final of the Tokyo Olympics, the Chinese team composed of Xu Jiayu, Yan Zibei, Zhang Yufei and Yang Junxuan won the silver medal
WADA disclosed more details of the case at a previous press conference, including a report from the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency that the 23 swimmers who tested positive for drugs were all staying at the same hotel, and that trimetazidine residues were found in the hotel's kitchen, lobby extraction system and drains.
However, all the athletes tested for drugs with only a small amount of trimetazidine, and hovered between negative and positive reactions, which was inconsistent with the reaction to deliberately taking banned drugs, so the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency ruled that the positive drug test of the 23 swimmers was "the result of contamination of food by environmental factors", decided not to take further action, and informed WADA of the relevant decision. WADA's scientific department found that the case was not suspicious and therefore did not require follow-up, and legal experts agreed that the Court of Arbitration for Sport may not guarantee that the case would be overturned.