Qin Haiyang appeared to hit back at comments from rival Adam Peaty as he declared any “doubt” around China’s swimming golds at Paris 2024 is a “joke”.
Qin was implicated in a report from the New York Times published before the Olympics which claimed that the World Anti-Doping agency (Wada) took no action when 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for the banned performance enhancing drug trimetazidine (TMZ) in 2021.
The swimmers were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympics when Wada accepted the findings of a Chinese investigation that the results were due to contamination from a hotel kitchen, and 11, including the 25-year-old Qin, have competed in Paris.
The world champion in the 100m and 200m breaststroke was unable to win individual medals at the Olympics but was part of the China team that raced to gold in the 4x100m medley relay on Sunday night – which was followed by explosive comments from Peaty.
He appeared to reference a further New York Times allegation that Qin returned a positive test for a different performance-enhancing drug in 2017 – which was blamed on contaminated food.
“For me, if you’ve been on that and you’ve been ‘contaminated’ twice I think as an honourable person you should be out of the sport. But we know sport is not that simple,” Peaty said.
On Instagram, Qin posted a picture of China’s 4x100m medley relay with their gold medals with a message that appeared to respond to the questions the team’s victories have been met with.
“We did it! Olympic champion!” Qin said. “Any doubt is just a joke. Stress will only make us stronger.”
Qin and Peaty met in the 100m breaststroke final but he finished a disappointing seventh and outside of the medal positions, while also failing to reach the 200m breaststroke final.
Peaty, along with American stars Katie Ledecky and Caeleb Dressel have been outspoken about the scandal facing Chinese swimming but their team has been regularly tested in Paris.
During the Olympics, Qin released a statement accusing American and European athletes of conspiring to distract Chinese athletes from their preparations by challenging Wada’s handling of the case.
Qin took to social media to refute the accusations, writing: “This proves that the European and American teams feel threatened by the performances of the Chinese team in recent years.
“Some tricks aim to disrupt our preparation rhythm and destroy our psychological defence! But we are not afraid. When you have a clear conscience, you do not fear slander.”
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