As doping claims surround China’s swim team, Paris 2024 crowds have already made up their minds

Doping allegations among the swimming team have loomed large over these Games

There is a harpist who opens the evening swimming sessions at La Defense Arena in Paris with a serene melody while hypnotic images of swimmers are projected on to the glassy pool.
It is a moment of calm before the 15,000-capacity arena erupts and the racing begins, as fans cheer on their idols. Leon Marchand, France’s superhuman swimmer who could clean up with four golds at his home Olympics, has earned the lion’s share of the rapturous support over the past week, but plenty of the ear-splitting noise has been reserved for other nations too.
Canadian teen sensation Summer McIntosh – a prodigious talent who has announced herself as a superstar at these Games at the tender age of 17 with two golds and a silver – has proved a firm favourite among fans. As has American Katie Ledecky, who earlier this week became the USA’s most decorated female Olympic swimmer of all time in Paris, while Australia’s domineering women’s 4x200m freestyle relay were roared home in an Olympic record time before fireworks on the podium.
But when it comes to Chinese swimmers, the mood has felt palpably different. Doping allegations among the country’s swimming team have loomed large over these Games ever since it emerged that 23 of their athletes at Tokyo 2020 failed drugs tests for a banned heart medication, 11 of whom are competing in the Paris Olympics. It makes for grim reading in a sport that has constantly battled to clean up its image and it has now spilled over into the court of public opinion. With its chequered past, the public perception is that China should be eyed with suspicion.
Take, for example, the women’s 200 metre freestyle medal ceremony on Thursday evening. When China’s Zhang Yufei stepped up on to the podium after claiming bronze, she was all smiles despite having been unable to defend her crown from Tokyo. She was visibly thrilled, the crowd less so. Those with sharp hearing could detect the faintest boos rippling around the arena.
Zhang had been one of the swimmers named in an investigation by The New York Times and German broadcaster ARD when the saga was first reported in April this year. The 26-year-old had found herself facing questions over the debacle as early as last week, when she stressed that her teammates had been subjected to a vigorous monthly testing regime in the build-up to Paris.
Instead of answering happy questions about winning bronze, Zhan found herself sticking up for her compatriot, Pan Zhanle, an apparent freak of nature who stunned everyone with a 46.40 world record in the men’s 100 metre freestyle. Pan, it should be noted, was not one of the swimmers implicated in the Tokyo doping story, but his astonishing performance in the pool was enough to raise eyebrows.
Zhang said: “Pan had consistently swum under 47 seconds prior to achieving his new world record, indicating a stable and continuous improvement rather than a sudden leap in performance. Pan’s achievements were legitimate and attained under stringent anti-doping protocols.”
Indeed, Zhang went further when she blatantly asked why people were not questioning other outstanding swimmers from other countries.
Zhang said: “Why are Chinese athletes questioned when they achieve fast times, yet no one doubted Michael Phelps when he won seven or eight gold medals? Similarly, Katie Ledecky has dominated long-distance swimming from 2012 to 2024, winning gold in every event, yet no one questioned her performances.”
In an ugly twist, Mark Adams, the spokesperson for the International Olympic Committee, was unable to guarantee that China’s swimming team is fully clean. “They are the most tested swimming team here, in swimming,” he said, fudging a diplomatic answer when the question was put to him on Friday. “[There have been] 600 and something tests routinely since January. So they are fully tested. And by the way, similarly, ahead of Tokyo, they were – targeted is the wrong word – but clearly when there were issues with the sport in the country with an individual and the ITA made sure that was dealt with in terms of the testing protocols.
“Can you ever say that with any team – [it’s] never 100 per cent – but all the work is being done,” he said. “Let me get that right. I’m not making any aspersions toward this Chinese team – just in general I would say it’s difficult to ever know, but all of the tests have been done and we continue to see great performances and that’s what we want to see at the Olympic Games.”
Innocent, of course, until proven guilty – a principle that is becoming harder to live by in an age where athletes are mercilessly subjected to trials by social media. The Parisian crowds, it seems, have already made their minds up over this embattled Chinese contingent.