One of America’s most decorated Olympians wants to ensure things are fair and square in Paris.
On Thursday, swimmer Katie Ledecky didn’t hold back when discussing competing against Chinese swimmers, some of whom may have been taking banned substance trimetazidine (TMZ).
“I hope everyone here (in Paris) is going to be competing clean this week,” Ledecky said. “But what really matters also is: Were they training clean? Hopefully, that’s been the case. Hopefully, there’s been even testing around the world.
“I think everyone’s heard what the athletes think. They want transparency. They want further answers to the questions that still remain.”
One of those questions is whether China, which had 23 swimmers implicated in a scandal during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, will keep its six swimming medals from three years prior.
Such swimmers were initially cleared to partake in the 2021 Olympics because the World Anti-Doping Agency deduced that they were accidentally exposed to TMZ via contamination.
Altogether, China placed fourth in swimming in Tokyo, behind the United States, Australia and Great Britain.
The purported cheating didn’t affect the legendary Ledecky, who won gold in the women’s 800-meter and 1500-meter freestyle while taking silver in 400-meter and 4×200-meter freestyle.
As competition ramps up from Paris, China’s upcoming team will feature 11 swimmers who were on the tainted 2020 team, including gold medalists Zhang Yufei and Wang Shun.
The fact that such swimmers are allowed to participate without full substance clearance isn’t weighing too tremendously on the individually focused Ledecky and other swimmers, though.
“At this point, we’re here to race,” Ledecky said. “We’re going to race whoever is in the lane next to us. We’re not the ones paid to do the testing, so we hope that the people that are follow their own rules.”
Swimming action begins from France on Saturday, starting with the preliminary women’s 100-meter butterfly heats.