MELBOURNE (Reuters) – China’s doping case will be an extra source of motivation for Australia’s swimmers at the Paris Olympics, according to rising freestyle specialist Flynn Southam.
Southam, part of the world championship-winning 100 metres freestyle relay team in Fukuoka last year, said his team mates had discussed revelations that 23 Chinese swimmers had failed drug tests for a banned substance before the Tokyo Games.
“Yeah, there were a few things going around, mainly just athletes talking with other athletes and comparing notes on how it made us feel,” Southam said in comments published by News Corp media on Monday.
“I guess it is fuel to the fire, but at the same time we are not going to get caught up in the narratives of anyone else.
“We are just there to do our job and our job is to do the best we can and capitalise on the support we get from the Australian public.”
The 23 swimmers were cleared before Tokyo by a Chinese investigation which said they were inadvertently exposed to the drug trimetazidine, a heart medication, through contamination.
The World Anti-Doping Agency accepted the explanation in 2021 but last week appointed a Swiss prosecutor to review the case after mounting pressure from the global swimming community.
Western Australian Southam added to his voice to a chorus of leading swimmers who have found the Chinese case hard to swallow.
“There’s two sides to it, you’ve got to block it out because it is not in your control,” the 18-year-old said.
“But at the same time it is a bit infuriating when I give my address and my whereabouts every day for an hour a day to get drug tested from doping agencies and when something like that comes up it really makes you question why we are even doing that.
“I am all about clean sport, fair sport. I don’t think that cheating aligns with the ethics and morals of the Olympics.”
China said on Friday it would cooperate with WADA’s investigation and criticised media for releasing “inappropriate” reports.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Sonali Paul)
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