Two of the four Chinese swimmers who were part of the gold-medal winning 4×100 men’s medley relay team on Sunday were on the list of 23 who tested positive for trimetazidine, a banned substance, seven months before the Tokyo Olympics.
Qin Haiyang and Sun Jiajun were those who tested positive, while Pan Zhanle and Xu Jiayu were not.
Twelve total members of Team China at the Paris Games were among those to test positive.
The swimmers who tested positive have not been disciplined by the country’s antidoping authorities, a decision upheld by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
China’s internal investigation concluded that the swimmers tested positive due to contamination from food.
The 4×100-meter medley was a razor-tight race between China, the US and France, which finished in the podium in that order.
China overhauled a brief French lead in the final 100 meters, while Calaeb Dressel’s leg on the butterfly surged the U.S. into contention.
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Hunter Armstrong, who swam the anchor leg, could not hang on against Pan, who swam a 45.92 in the last 100 meters.
China’s 3:27.46 edged out the United States for gold by .55 seconds.
Though the IOC has allowed the Chinese swimmers under question to race, that has not prevented them from coming under scrutiny.
“We’re going to race whoever’s in the lanes next to us and we’re not the ones paid to do the testing. So we hope that the people that are, follow their own rules,” Katie Ledecky told reporters ahead of the Games. “We want to see some change for the future so you don’t have to ask us that question.”