WADA Confirms It Cleared Chinese Swimmers to Compete at Tokyo Games Citing Contaminated Samples

The final of the women's 200m backstroke swimming event during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre in Tokyo, on July 31, 2021. Attila Kisbenede/AFP via Getty Images

SYDNEY—The world’s top anti-doping regulator says 23 Chinese swimmers were cleared to compete at the Tokyo Olympics despite testing positive for a banned heart medication because it agreed with Chinese authorities and ruled that their samples had been contaminated.

The World Anti-Doping Agency said Saturday, April 20, that the swimmers tested positive for the heart medication trimetazidine in the months leading up to the start of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 but that Chinese authorities told the agency the positives were the result of contamination.