Australian athletes free to speak out about China doping case in Paris: Chef de Mission Anna Meares

Ahead of the Australian contingent’s departure for the Paris Olympics 2024, the team’s Chef de Mission Anna Meares stated that the Australian athletes will be free to speak about the Chinese swimming team’s doping case.

However, they are not allowed to speak out about the controversial case on the playing field or at the medal podium, as asserted by Meares in the final news conference before heading off to the French capital.

Meares further stated that it was important that Australian athletes were allowed freely to speak out and voice their opinions on such matters with a few conditions in place.

"If they have an opinion or when they want to share it, they're welcome to, the athlete voice is really, really important. The only thing that I will say and have said to them myself is that a survey went through from the Athletes Commission to Olympians around protests and using our voice,” she said (via Reuters).

"There are lots of places where they can do that ... but the two places that athletes agreed upon that protest and voice wouldn't be used, was on the podium and on the field of play,” she went on to add.

Notably, 23 Chinese swimmers, who tested positive for trimetazidine (TMZ), a medication that increases blood flow to the heart, were cleared by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to participate in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. This came after WADA accepted the findings of a Chinese investigation that the swimmers were inadvertently exposed to the drug in a hotel kitchen.

Anna Meares acknowledges that independent investigation has cleared WADA

An independent investigation into the case found that WADA had not mishandled or shown favoritism.

Additionally, Anna Meares backed WADA after the investigation cleared the apex body over the Chinese swimming doping controversy. Meares said that she had not read Tuesday’s report but she reinforced her confidence in WADA ahead of the Paris Olympics 2024.

It’s worth noting that the investigation, led by Swiss prosecutor Eric Cottier, cleared WADA of mishandling the case. Cottier’s investigation came to a conclusion finding no irregularities.

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