On December 26 last year, the 24th session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed the Criminal Law Amendment (XI), which came into effect on March 1 this year. It is particularly noteworthy that in the Criminal Law Amendment (XI), a new doping-related offence was added, "to induce, instigate or deceive athletes to use doping to participate in major domestic and international sports competitions, or to provide doping to athletes knowingly participating in the above-mentioned competitions, if the circumstances are serious, they shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention and shall also be fined." Whoever organizes or compels athletes to use doping to participate in major domestic or international sports competitions shall be given a heavier punishment in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph. The crime was formally established as "obstruction of doping management." Undoubtedly, this fully shows that China has taken a far-reaching and important step in the fight against doping.
All along, China has always adhered to the position of resolutely opposing the use of doping and continuously improved the level of rule of law in anti-doping work. However, when it comes to the doping history of Chinese sports, there is indeed a past that cannot be looked back, and it is precisely because this history is too heavy that it has to be faced squarely. The doping epidemic among Chinese athletes began in 1986, when the Chinese Swimming Association hired klaus, a former East German swimming coach, to improve the team's performance. Klaus brought an advanced training system, but also brought three magic weapons: altitude training, blood lactate testing and doping. At that time, East Germany adhered to the supremacy of national interests, and in order to win the gold medal by any means, athletes collectively relied on doping to improve their performance. From 1968 to 1988, the former East Germany, which had a population of only 16 million at four Olympic Games, won as many as 519 Olympic medals, 192 of which were gold medals. Under the influence of Klaus, Chinese swimming began to be contaminated with stimulants. At the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul, 11 members of the Chinese swimming team were found to be doping, which was also the earliest large-scale doping incident in The Chinese sports world, that is, since then, the topic of Chinese swimmers taking drugs has been widely discussed.
Former East German swimming coach Rudolf Klaus (left)
At the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, the Chinese swimming team represented by Zhuang Yong, Qian Hong, Lin Li, Yang Wenyi and Wang Xiaohong's "Five Golden Flowers" turned out to be a worldwide shock. Although the amazing achievements of the "Five Golden Flowers" have inspired the Chinese people, they have attracted a lot of international dissent, they are tall and thick, their muscles resemble men's, and even the beard and throat knots are faintly visible, which can't help but make people think about it. What is even more puzzling is that after the 1993 National Games, Yang Wenyi, Qian Hong, Zhuang Yong, and Wang Xiaohong announced their retirement almost at the same time in the "Five Golden Flowers"...
Although the "five golden flowers" have become a thing of the past, Chinese swimming has not declined, but has become more invincible. Of the 16 gold medals in the women's event at the 1994 Swimming World Championships, 12 were won by Chinese women. But a month later, at the Hiroshima Asian Games, everything turned into a nightmare that could not be looked back. China won 23 swimming gold medals at the Hiroshima Asian Games, while Japan, the former Asian swimming champion, won only 7. Subsequently, the Japan Swimming Association appealed to FINA, requesting a flight drug test of the Chinese swimming team and providing a videotape of evidence. In the end, 11 members of the Chinese swimming team were found to be taking illegal drugs and 12 gold medals were stripped away. This is also the worst and most widespread doping incident in China's sports world so far. At that time, European and American countries took this opportunity to declare, "This is the biggest drug scandal in the history of modern sports." The United States, Canada and Australia have even joined forces to prevent Chinese athletes from participating in the subsequent Pan Pacific Swimming Championships. Since then, Chinese swimming has entered a trough.
After the Hiroshima scandal, the Chinese swimming team was subject to strict scrutiny when it left the country.
In fact, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Chinese sports people's understanding of doping was not clear, so it happened to lure and instigate athletes to take doping. Wu Shaozu, then director of the Sports Commission, wrote in his memoirs, "When the Sports Commission met in 1989 to discuss doping, some people explicitly proposed at the meeting that the past policy on doping was 'useful, harmless and untraceable'. Not anti-doping but doping, but just a reminder not to use those that are harmful to the body, and to use those that cannot be found. There are even cadres within the National Sports Commission who are privately involved in trafficking in doping from the Institute. ”
At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Chinese swimming won only one gold medal by Le Jingyi, but there are still many people behind this. Regrettably, at the 1998 World Championships in Paz, Australia, Yuan Yuan, a member of the Chinese swimming team, was found to be carrying growth hormone on the spot, which once again became a sensational international scandal. Subsequently, Wang Wei, who was named Luosun Mountain, did not escape the misfortune of being tested, and was found to contain illegal drugs in the urine sample. The collective outbreak of the Paz Chinese swimming scandal has forced Chinese officials to face up to the fact that doping is not just a problem for individual athletes.
Yuan Yuan was detained by the police
Since then, China has embarked on a radical crackdown on doping. In 1999, the State General Administration of Sport issued a formal anti-doping regulation, and in line with the principle of "preferring to kill a thousand by mistake, never let go of one", increased the intensity of testing, the result of the test was the 200-meter individual medley world record holder, swimming golden flower Wu Yanyan was banned for four years, and lost the Olympic qualification. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Chinese swimming did not even win a medal, but in reversing the bad external image, Chinese swimming took a big step.
To this day, Wu Yanyan, who was forced to retire due to the ban, also insisted that she did not take medicine
In addition to the managers waking up, the athletes themselves are slowly awakening. In the women's 100m breaststroke final of the 9th National Games in 2001, Luo Xuejuan set a new Asian record and won the championship, and at the press conference after the game, she was shocked, "The water in the pool is not very clean, but I stand up clean!" I always wonder why so many players have performed so well at the National Games. If those athletes really have such good results, then why don't they go to the Olympic Games to produce results, the national interest is always greater than the provincial interest, right? ”
Three years later, at the Athens Olympic Games, Luo Xuejuan, who was only 20 years old, won the women's 100-meter breaststroke championship with a time of 1 minute 06.64 seconds, and broke the Olympic record of the project, winning back the only swimming gold medal for China at that Olympic Games, breaking the rumor that Chinese swimmers can only win gold medals by doping, and also allowing Chinese swimming to see the hope of rising again...