The countdown to the opening of the Olympic Games in Paris, France, has begun.
But during this period, there are always some people who make small moves behind their backs.
And swimmer Zhang Yufei is one of the "victims".
The United States requires corresponding penalties for athletes
The opening of the Paris Olympics is imminent, and athletes from many countries have also left for Paris to prepare for the Olympic Games in advance.
However, at this time, the United States began to express their opinions and turned over old accounts against the mainland's athletes.
According to the rules of the competition, athletes participating in the Olympic Games must participate in a urine test, which is actually to prevent some athletes from doping during the competition.
Because the metabolites produced in the human body are basically excreted through urine, it can also be a good detection of whether stimulants or other things are used.
But in April this year, the United States began to question mainland athletes, saying that Chinese swimmers violated doping rules, hoping to conduct relevant investigations, including Zhang Yufei, Wang Shun and other 29 Chinese swimmers.
Their proposal sounds very serious, after all, if an athlete is caught doping in the Olympics, the punishment will be very serious.
But in fact, the so-called testimony of the United States this time is what happened as early as 2021.
In 2021, a national swimming championship was held in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, and during the doping test during the competition, the China Anti-Doping Center found that some athletes' samples were positive for trimetazidine at very low concentrations.
As soon as the incident was discovered, the China Anti-Doping Center immediately launched an all-round investigation into the matter.
After investigation, it was learned that the reason for the swimmer's positive condition was actually because of everyone's nutrition products at that time, and there were no so-called "medicines" or other contraband.
These athletes, completely unknowingly, ate foods containing trimetazidine, which led to the positive situation of many athletes.
Therefore, this is not the athlete who took the initiative to use something containing trimetazidine, according to the relevant regulations, in this matter, the athlete is not at fault and negligent, and this cannot be judged according to the doping violation.
Three years have passed since this incident, and the United States now hopes to investigate mainland athletes with this matter, and I wonder what their intentions are.
Not only that, but as early as the time this happened, the mainland had already reported it to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Innocence has long been proven
As soon as the athlete was tested positive, the relevant departments of the mainland had already reported to the FINA, and after the test results came out, we also reported.
At that time, WADA also conducted a relevant investigation into this matter, and it was also proved that the athlete used food containing trimetazidine, and even the test data was compliant.
It's just that in order to protect the relevant rights and interests of athletes, the result of this matter has not been announced to the public.
In other words, the incident reported by the United States actually had results at that time, and it had also proved the innocence of mainland athletes.
Therefore, United States's accusations this time are completely groundless and unfounded.
However, they did not give up, believing that the athletes on the mainland had not been punished accordingly, and even demanded that the matter be investigated in accordance with the "Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Law".
The provisions of the bill show that if there are United States athletes or sponsors in a sporting event, their countries have the right to execute doping in the event of doping.
The standard of punishment is a fine or imprisonment, which can be up to $1 million or 10 years in prison.
What's even more overbearing is that they also specifically stated that their own bill is not only valid for competitions or athletes in United States, but can even detain coaches and athletes who are not United States.
If they say it, then more than 20 athletes, including Zhang Yufei, will have to implement the punishment standards in accordance with their regulations.
But the question is, this bill is theirs, what does it have to do with us?
You know, when they first introduced this bill, they have been strongly opposed by the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Because their bill has seriously jeopardized the framework system of international anti-doping work, that is, they want to "monopolize power" in some international competitions, and they want to link sports and politics.
However, the United States itself did not think so, but was very satisfied with this bill, and this time it even proposed to use their bill to punish mainland athletes, which is simply a pipe dream and simply impossible.
But the United States is still unrelenting and hopes that the matter can be investigated.
In order to dispel this idea of United States, WADA reviewed the incident in 2021 again and also consulted a number of experts, and finally found that the relevant allegations of United States were misleading and defamatory.
You know, for a professional athlete, doping in competition is disrespectful to others and disrespectful to yourself.
Even if there are good results, once they are discovered, they will be canceled.
How can an athlete risk his future after training in obscurity for so many years?
Not only that, but in response to this matter, the Association of International Individual Sports Federations (ASOIF) of the Summer Olympics also made corresponding remarks.
ASOIF issued a document saying that United States' move is undoubtedly undermining the role and independence of the World Anti-Doping Agency, and even further undermines the global anti-doping system and the trust in the sovereignty of sports rules and regulations.
Not only that, ASOIF also asked the United States Olympic Committee and the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Committee to clarify the status of WADA in order to give the world organization an attitude.
You know, the address of the 2028 Olympics has been set in Los Angeles, if the United States still does this, I wonder if they have considered the consequences?
A spokesperson for the mainland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs also made it clear at the press conference that the United States is in no position to arbitrarily interfere in the anti-doping work of WADA and China.
The mainland reserves the right to take appropriate legal action against some inappropriate information from relevant media.
Information sources:
Beijing News Network "The United States Unreasonably Investigates the "Doping Incident of Chinese Swimmers", Expert: Sinister Intentions, Intention to Interfere with Normal Preparations" 2024-07-06
Global Network "Independent Investigation Says WADA Did Not Favor China in Case of 23 Chinese Swimmers Tested Positive for Banned Drugs, Foreign Ministry Responds" 2024-07-10
Xinhua News Agency, "Foreign Media Report Multiple Chinese Swimmers Positive World Anti-Doping Agency Says Report Is 'Misleading and Potentially Defamatory'" 2024-04-22
People's Daily "United States's "Long Arm Jurisdiction" Anti-Doping Act Will Take Effect"2020-12-05
Xinhua News Agency "Summer Olympic Association issued a statement condemning United States for potentially undermining the role and independence of the World Anti-Doping Agency"2024-07-13