How a doping scandal could overshadow the Olympics

Good morning.

The Olympics is here! Get ready for some truly awe-inspiring displays of athleticism. But there is also a scandal hovering over the Games in Paris that threatens to move focus away from the athletes.

Earlier this year, an investigation by German news channel ARD and the New York Times – which revealed that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive for the banned heart drug trimetazidine (TMZ) before the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 but were still allowed to compete in the Games – caused uproar in the world of competitive swimming.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) confirmed that while they had found the banned substance in the athletes, they accepted the findings of the investigation conducted by the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency, which claimed that the results were due to contamination from a hotel kitchen. There has been no explanation of how the prescription drug got into the kitchen and the food of nearly two dozen athletes. The case was also not made public at the time.

Three years later, 11 of those swimmers are competing in Paris, despite significant criticism from athletes and other regulatory bodies. Legendary swimmers Michael Phelps and Allison Schmitt went to a hearing on Capitol Hill to say that they had lost faith in the fairness of the Games.

For today’s newsletter, I spoke with Kieran Pender, a Guardian contributor who covers sport and law, on the doping scandal looming over the 2024 Games. That’s right after the headlines.

Five big stories

In depth: ‘Something could kick off at the pool in Paris’

Kieran arrived in a frenetic Paris on Sunday. “It’s a bit of a weird time before an Olympics begins, because there’s this real sense of anticipation,” he says. Many people are leaving the city for the summer, and even more are trying to avoid the impending chaos. Meanwhile, spectators are steadily arriving. “There’s a real excitement and a buzz,” Kieran adds.

It couldn’t feel more different from the last Games in Tokyo, where there were no spectators, and fans and athletes were largely isolated due to the pandemic. “That was such an unusual Olympics, and it’s remarkable that only three years later, life is, in many respects, back to normal,” he says. However, he adds that there is a small Covid outbreak in some teams, and several Olympic volunteers have resigned due to concerns over the lack of Covid safety measures.

This Olympics, like most others, faces several potential problems: protesters, disgruntled residents, and the biggest problem of all – a doping scandal that threatens the integrity of one of the sports.

‘Fraught times’

Doping scandals are, of course, nothing new, and nor is the anti-doping regime carried out by bodies such as Wada and Usada (US Anti-Doping Agency). Transparency over how those agencies operate is critical to ensure trust. “Typically when an athlete tests positive, they’re provisionally suspended and that’s made public while the anti-doping process runs its course,” Kieran says. That did not happen in the case of the Chinese swimmers in 2021, some of whom went on to win medals in Tokyo. Wada did not declare the results, and the team’s performance was one of the best in Chinese swimming history.

Wada says it followed the proper protocols, and that it was limited in what it could do due to pandemic restrictions in China. The explanation given by Wada and China’s own agency, Chinada, did not satisfy athletes, other regulatory bodies or government officials. Soon after the revelations became public, Wada appointed a special prosecutor to investigate how the regulator handled the positive results. Earlier this month, the independent review concluded that the agency’s decision was “indisputably reasonable”.

Critics have called into question the independence of the review, while anti-doping groups FairSport and Global Athlete said the process was “inherently flawed from the outset”. They added that, “until all related documents are made public, trust in the system will not be regained and Wada’s position as the global regulator will continue to be challenged”.

“These are fraught times,” says Kieran. “There are real concerns from a lot of swimmers about the integrity of the competition”. He also notes that these kinds of tensions are not novel – in 2019 the Australian swimmer Mack Horton protested against China’s Sun Yang at the world swimming titles because of doping allegations. “There’s every possibility that something really kicks off at the pool in Paris.”

The politics of it all

The International Olympic Committee met on Wednesday and formally awarded Salt Lake City the 2034 Winter Olympics, as was expected. Some IOC members, however, said that it should only be given to the US if their anti-doping agency stopped criticising Wada. “Salt Lake City has now been granted the 2034 Winter Games on the express condition that the US stop criticising the world anti-doping authority, and the local administration seek to have an FBI investigation into the allegations dropped. That’s remarkable,” Kieran says.

Fair play

Most of the swimmers that Kieran has spoken to, particularly on the Australian team, are troubled by the saga but have a level of resignation about the issue. “They have said, ‘it is what it is’ and ‘we just have to focus on our own race because we can’t control these other things’,” Kieran says.

He also highlights the punitive nature of the anti-doping regime for those who get caught in it: “there’s sort of a frustration among athletes that the system is harsh in some cases and then not in others, without explanation”. For instance, the Australian swimmer Shayna Jack – who also argued that something she ingested must have been contaminated – was forced to serve a two-year suspension from the sport despite the arbitrators in her case accepting that she had not intentionally taken performance-enhancing drugs. “For the integrity of the sport as a whole and for public confidence everyone has to feel that these frameworks are being fairly and evenly applied,” Kieran says.

Although this story will certainly dominate headlines, Kieran adds that he does not want it to detract from the competition. “There are some stellar matchups and I think this could be a historic Olympic swim meet,” he says. “While we need to scrutinise what’s happening away from the swim-deck, I think the swimming itself is going to be very exciting”.

What else we’ve been reading

• “In order to find gold, you’ve got to start digging”: David Lynch and musical collaborator Chrystabell have given a vivid interview about their new album to Alastair Shuttleworth. Hannah J Davies, deputy editor, newsletters

• Las Vegas is known for its high temperatures but sweltering heat is reaching record highs with fatal repercussions. Gabrielle Canon takes a look at the toll it’s taking on residents. Nimo

• For the second in this series of sobering interviews with Gaza residents, Bethan McKernan speaks to orphanage director Hazem Rahma, who is caring for children – many of them disabled – amid conditions that beggar belief. Hannah

• Rebecca Ratcliffe spoke with the former head of the Philippine navy, Vice Admiral Eduardo Santos, about an ingenious plan to stave off a creeping encroachment by China in the South China Sea, a region that hosts one of the world’s busiest trade routes. Nimo

• “I was moved to tears in Margate”: dig into fellow Guardian readers’ favourite British seaside eateries. Hannah

Sport

Figure skating | The US figure skating team was formally confirmed as gold medallists from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics by a sports court ruling on Thursday, opening the way for the team to receive medals at the Paris Summer Games.

Football | The Matildas have suffered a chastening start to their latest Olympic dream, outclassed 3-0 by Games powerhouse Germany on a stifling, dispiriting night in the south of France. The World Cup semi-finalists are seeking their first ever Olympic medal. They must win their next match against Zambia in Nice on Sunday.

Formula One | McLaren’s Lando Norris has admitted he did not handle the team orders controversy which marred the Hungarian Grand Prix last week well, admitting that he was not proud of himself and that he would behave differently if the situation arose again.

The front pages

The Guardian headlines with “Chancellor to reveal £20bn shortfall in public finances” as the revelation is expected to pave the way for potential tax rises. The Telegraph also goes with this line, albeit a different figure with “Chancellor to reveal £19bn hole in finances”. A similar theme in the i with “Starmer warned against pension tax hit for seven million savers”.

The Times has “Hospitals have gone unchecked for 10 years” as it covers what the health secretary describes as the ‘failings’ of the Care Quality Commission. In the Mirror, “Stab frenzy soldier’s hero wife”. The paper covers the actions of Mark Teeton’s wife during his attack. In the Mail, “Labour’s £300 green energy bill saving ‘lie’”, as the Tories attack Labour’s energy policy.

Banking is the headline for the UK edition of the Financial Times with “Revolut eyes expansion after winning three-year battle for banking licence”, as the paper says the company plans to widen the range of products it can now offer. And in the Express, “Esther’s ‘heart lifted at hope of dying in favourite place’”, as the campaigner talks about a bid to legalise assisted dying.

Something for the weekend

Our critics’ roundup of the best things to watch, read and listen to right now

TV
Time Bandits (Apple TV+)
Reimagined for TV by Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement and Iain Morris, this update of Terry Gilliam’s 1981 hit fantasy film is funny, charming, confident and still channelling a Pythonesque welcome to any form of oddity in the world. Gilliam was not involved in the production, but he will surely be pleased to see his legacy so beautifully preserved, in all its daftness and with all its wit. Lucy Mangan

Music
Ice Spice – Y2K!
Ice Spice is divisive, but you can’t argue with the fact that she is hip-hop’s biggest breakout star in recent memory. If insubstantiality is the accusation often levelled at her, well, Y2K! is 23 minutes long, and brings with it a whole 15 minutes of new music. But the album succeeds on its own terms: it’s fun while it lasts. Alexis Petridis

Film
I Saw The TV Glow (in cinemas today)
Cinephiles lie awake at night worrying that talented young film-makers are deserting cinema for TV. Jane Schoenbrun, one of the most gifted around, has just made a superb feature film about a fictional TV show, imagined here with such loving and unnerving intensity that it surely can’t be long before they are called upon to conjure up a dozen or so episodes for real. Claustrophobic, unwholesome and brilliant. Peter Bradshaw

Podcast
The Podclass:How To Write a Book
Widely available, episodes weekly
Elizabeth Day knows a thing or two about how to write a bestselling novel, but she takes a backseat in this insightful how-to series, and hands over the reins to a collective literary powerhouse: novelist Sara Collins, agent Nelle Andrew and publisher Sharmaine Lovegrove. First up: how to know when that idea might be worth working on. Hollie Richardson

Today in Focus

Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings

The Upside

A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad

Pangolins are the only mammal on the planet covered with scales, and Mozambique-based veterinarian Mércia Ângela says: “I think they are so handsome – just seeing them makes me fall in love.” Ângela is a vet at a pangolin rehabilitation centre that works with rangers at Gorongosa national park to tackle poaching. Prized in some cultures for their scales, which are used in traditional medicine, pangolins are the most-trafficked animal in the world.

“It is normal to have this issue in a conservation area with lots of fauna, especially in a country where there is hunger and unemployment – people who do not have work end up getting involved in illegal activities such as poaching,” Ângela explains. But these small nocturnal creatures are crucial to maintain balance in the ecosystem, she says.

“By being there to take care of them, I am giving hope that, despite all the threats they face and all the evil things they experience, it is possible for them to return to nature and live freely.”

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