Olympic swimmers are still demanding answers about Chinese doping cases, American great Katie Ledecky says.
Ledecky, the most successful female swimmer ever with seven Olympic gold medals and 21 world championship golds, says athletes want changes to the global anti-doping system.
“They want transparency, they want further answers to the questions that still remain,” Ledecky told reporters in Paris on Wednesday.
“At this point, we’re here to race. We’re going to race whoever is in the lane next to us.
“We’re not the ones paid to do the testing. So we hope that the people that are following their own rules and that applies now and into the future.
“We want to see some change for the future so that you don’t have to ask us that question.”
In April, The New York Times reported that 23 Chinese swimmers were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago despite testing positive earlier in 2021.
Eleven of the swimmers who tested positive to trimetazidine, a drug banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), have been selected on China’s swim team for the Paris Olympics.
WADA accepted the findings of a Chinese investigation that the test results were due to contamination from a team hotel kitchen.
An independent investigation this month WADA did not mishandle or show favouritism.
A separate audit from World Aquatics concluded there was no mismanagement or cover-up by swimming’s governing body.
Swimming at the Paris Olympics starts on Saturday
“I hope everyone here is going to be competing clean this week,” Ledecky said.
“But what really matters also is were they training clean?
“So really, hopefully, that has been the case. Hopefully there has been even testing around the world.”
Source Agencies
