China swimmers’ Olympic wins shadowed by doping scandal

“Any doubt is just a joke. Stress only makes us stronger,” Qin Haiyang – a part of China’s history-making men’s 4x100m medley quartet posted after their unprecedented victory over the US on Monday.

Qin’s seeming defiance came at the tail end of what has been a challenging time for China in the pool.

Some of the country’s top swimmers – including Qin and his relay teammate Sun Jiajun- have been in the spotlight after a slew of doping allegations, followed by contentious US claims that the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) was covering it up.

They were among 23 Chinese swimmers who reportedly returned positive doping tests prior to the Tokyo Olympics.

And although Chinese swimmers have been drug-tested twice as much, external as some other nations this year before heading to Paris, their performances have been met with scepticism.

Right after the medley event on Monday, Team GB’s Adam Peaty opened his fire on the Chinese team, saying “there’s no point winning if you’re not winning fair”.

Swim legend Michael Phelps who has been vocal about doping issues also doubled down. “If you test positive, you should never be allowed to come back and compete again, cut and dry,” he told news agency Associated Press. “I believe one and done.”

To the Chinese swimming team and their millions of fans back home, however, the victory brought joy and vindication.

The hashtag “China winning gold medal at 4x100m medley relay” was viewed 760 million times on Weibo.

“China’s gold medal are squeaky clean, we won it with our competence!” A comment racked up more than 8,000 likes on Weibo reads.