The world’s top swimmers are considering filing a multimillion-dollar class-action lawsuit against the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) over the admission of Chinese athletes with positive doping tests to the Tokyo Olympics, the Times reported on April 26.
The publication does not reveal the names of the athletes who began negotiations on this issue with lawyers and sports leaders. It should be noted that, in anticipation of such a claim, the AMA has obtained financial support.
Let us remember that on April 20, The New York Times reported positive results of doping tests on 23 Chinese swimmers who participated in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. The substance trimetazidine was detected. However, WADA did not suspend the athletes, citing the weak evidence base for the allegations.
The Chinese side asked that no action be taken against its swimmers, alleging that they had inadvertently consumed a banned substance and assured that the amount was small. An investigation by China’s Anti-Doping Agency linked the cause of the incident to contaminated food.
On April 23, the United States Anti-Doping Agency demanded the appointment of an independent prosecutor to review the case of possible concealment of positive doping tests by Chinese athletes.
On April 25, WADA, trying to calm the scandal with the admission to the Olympic Games of Chinese swimmers whose doping samples contained banned substances, hired an independent prosecutor to verify the case materials. “We continue to reject the false allegations and welcome the opportunity to place these matters in the hands of an experienced, respected and independent prosecutor.”said WADA president Witold Banka.
It should be noted that in January Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva was disqualified for the discovery of trimetazidine. The Court of Arbitration for Sport, at the request of WADA, suspended the athlete from Russia for four years and annulled all of her achievements as of December 25, 2021.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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