Adam Peaty to Anti-Doping Authorities: ‘Wake Up and Do Your Job’
Adam Peaty had an eventful week at the Paris Olympics. A tie for silver in the men’s 100 breaststroke, then a week convalescing with COVID-19 and an ear infection, then a fourth-place finish in the men’s medley relay didn’t leave much time for Peaty to weigh in on other matters.
But with his meet done Sunday night in Paris – and Great Britain fourth in the medley behind a Chinese gold medal – Peaty unloaded on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s handling of Chinese doping tests.
“I think one of my favorite quotes I’ve seen lately is, there’s no point winning if you don’t win it fair,” Peaty said. “I think you know that in your heart. Even if you touch and you know you’re cheating, you know you’re not winning, right? So for me, if you’ve been on that and you have been contaminated twice, I think as an honorable person, you should be out of the sport. But we know sport isn’t that simple.”
Peaty is referring to the 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for trimetazidine in January 2021, a case that was cleared by the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency as a case of environmental contamination. WADA and World Aquatics assented to that decision, and WADA appointed an independent prosecutor to review its handling of the case, ultimately finding that the organization handled it properly.
Several Chinese swimmers have come out to detail how often they’ve been tested since April when the positive doping tests were revealed. China won two gold and 12 total medals in Paris three gold and six medals in Tokyo.
Peaty is less than convinced. Qin Haiyang, one of the swimmers among the 23, won three world championships in breaststroke at the World Championships in 2023 and swam on the men’s medley relay that won Sunday. Pan Zhanle, not on the list, set a world record of 46.40 seconds in the 100 freestyle in Paris and split 45.92 off the end of the relay Sunday, his 20th birthday.
Many swimmers in Paris have trod the safe line of having to trust in WADA. What others do is out of their control, and there have been grave consequences in the past for being critical of world governing bodies. Many swimmers, including Peaty’s teammate Ben Proud, have said they have faith that Pan in particular is swimming clean.
“We have to put our trust in WADA,” said Caeleb Dressel, who was on the men’s medley relay that won silver, the first time in 16 non-boycotted Olympics that the American men’s relay failed to take gold. “I honestly haven’t paid too much attention to it, because a lot of that is out of my control. I don’t work for WADA. There’s nothing I can do, and there’s a lot of stuff that you can say that’s going to light you up. So it’s a no-win situation for me. I’m trying to race really tough, and they were the better team. It’s as simple as that.”
Peaty took that a step further. He’s cautious that he doesn’t “want to paint a whole nation or a whole group of people with one brush.” But instead he called on WADA to enforce its rules and the spirit of fair competition.
“We have our faith in system, but we also don’t,” he said. “The Americans have been very vocal, and we didn’t want to get distracted with that, but I think it’s got to be stricter. …
“I think that the people that need to do the job, wake up and do your job.”
Adam Peaty, speaking truth to power.