Paris Olympics: Zhang Yufei Denies Wrongdoing in First Public Comments Since Positive Test News
For the first time since she was named among 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for trimetazidine (TMZ) in 2021, Zhang Yufei has spoken to reporters and claimed inculpability, blaming her positive test on food contamination, just as Chinese anti-doping officials have insisted and those from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and World Aquatics have corroborated.
Zhang spoke in Chinese after racing the women’s 100 butterfly prelims at the Tokyo Olympics and qualifying as the top seed for semifinals.
“I don’t think any athlete, Chinese or non-Chinese, would want to destroy the work they built up every day over the years on doping,” Zhang said, with quotes translated by The New York Times. She claimed that the Chinese government “also does not allow us to dope on purpose.”
According to the Times translation, Zhang claimed to have been tested 20 to 30 times for banned substances over the past two months to ensure that they would be clean for the Olympics. The enhanced testing was instituted following widespread concerns of cheating from athletes, coaches and officials following the revelations of the positive tests in January.
Already in Paris, swimmers have made public their concerns about Chinese swimmers going without sanction following their positive tests. American freestyle star Katie Ledecky questioned if the recent barrage of testing would be sufficient, since it did not definitely prove that no illicit activity had occurred earlier. Australia’s Zac Stubblety-Cook, who lost his 200 breaststroke world record to another of the accused Chinese swimmers, Qin Haiyang, called the situation “disappointing.” Caeleb Dressel admitted in front of World Aquatics leadership that he was not convinced these Games would be clean.
From the opposite perspective, Zhang is worried that her international competitors will consider her a cheater following the news of the positive test, even as Zhang maintains her innocence.
“I really hope everyone will not look at the Chinese swimming team with tinted glasses,” she said. “Before last year, and before the scandal broke out, I got along really well with competitors from other countries. Now at this Olympics, I’m really worried that my good friends will look at me differently, that they would be unwilling to compete with me or watch me compete.”
Thank you for your excellent coverage so far Swimming World! A certain ‘other’ site has more traffic but they do not have the very much needed quotes / interviews from the swimmers that you do. (All they have is comments from hundreds of people who are obsessed with relays at the expense of individual swims!)