Chinese authorities have blamed imported Australian meat as a source which led to two of the country’s top swimmers failing a drug test in late 2022.
Samples which were taken from the swimmers on October 6, 2022 by the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA), showed trace amounts of metandienone.
The swimmers were provisionally suspended on November 3, 2022 with a view to asserting a four-year period of ineligibility before a Chinese Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) anti-doping tribunal, according to WADA.
As the hearing was being prepared by CHINADA, athlete-commissioned testing of meat samples found a number of positive results for metandienone.
In separate testing periods in early 2023, a shooter and one BMX rider tested positive for similarly low quantities of the same substance.
Australian meat
The investigation by the authorities in China included the testing of hundreds of meat samples from various sources, with dozens revealing positive results for metandienone.
CHINADA also analysed the athletes’ nutritional supplements and conducted hair tests, which were negative.
Significantly, both the swimmers provided negative doping control samples in the days before and after the single trace positive.
Following its investigation, CHINADA concluded that the four cases were most likely linked to meat contamination.
In late 2023, closed the cases without asserting a violation, with the athletes having remained provisionally suspended throughout that time.
WADA and the relevant International Federations all had the opportunity to review the cases and, if appropriate, take appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
WADA
WADA thoroughly reviewed the cases in early 2024, and concluded that there was no evidence to challenge contaminated meat as the source of the positive tests. and therefore decided not to appeal to CAS.
WADA therefore did not appeal the case and none of the various anti-doping organisations issued appeal.
WADA stated that it wanted to assess the circumstances, “scale and risk” of meat contamination with metandienone in China and other countries.
“Based on the number of cases, clearly there is an issue of contamination in several countries around the world,” WADA stated.
WADA initiated an investigation in early 2024, which is being conducted by WADA’s independent Intelligence and Investigations Department.
In statement on the matter, the anti-doping agency stated that it had been “unfairly caught” in “geopolitical tensions” between the China and the US.
