this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2024
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Chinese doping scandal that has hung over these Paris Olympics as the events finished Sunday night.

China won the men’s 4x100-meter medley relay in 3 minutes, 27.46 seconds, with two of the four members on the team listed among 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive ahead of the Tokyo Olympics three years ago. The swimmers were allowed to compete after a Chinese investigation ruled that they consumed food that had been contaminated. 

The New York Times reported last week that two more Chinese swimmers had tested positive, including one 2024 Olympian, for a banned substance in 2022 but were cleared by Chinese officials to compete.

The World Anti-Doping Agency stood by its decision to clear the 23 swimmers who tested positive for a banned heart medication.

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[–] [email protected] 63 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Meanwhile Sha'Carri (US running) was DQ'd previously for having THC in her system. Still trying to wrap my head around how pot can help you run faster.

They weren't concerned about CBD or anything else, just the psychoactive THC.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

In general things that can calm your nerves in the run up to a very stressful sporting event are banned since forever.

I can tell you as someone who used to compete at a way lower level than these folks but still way beyond the average person that nerves have a huge impact on your body and therefore performance so it does make sense.

I'll leave you to infer yourself how the human body responds to extreme stress and how that might affect performance. :)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That would make sense if they were looking for CBD, which is the chemical that causes the relaxing effect of weed, not THC which more or less just gives the "high" feeling. You can easily get CBD from hemp and WADA actually removed it from their ban list in 2019.

There are also plenty of allowed substances that can help you relax, even prescription-only. They would have to ban things like; alcohol (never gonna happen), dramamine (antiemetic), diphenhydramine (antihistamine), gabapentin (anticonvulsant, Rx-only), etc... These, while primarily used for other purposes, all are occasionally used for their sedating effects and to my knowledge are all allowed.

There was also the argument that while yes, it does help with relaxing, it will actually decrease performance on the whole.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I actually think all the stuff you listed could give an unfair advantage depending on the sport.

When I was a kid alcohol was a huge aspect of professional snooker but it got banned. Like they would be having pints while waiting to take their shot. I take diphenhydramine to help me sleep occasionally and I could see that giving a very slight advantage depending on the sport too.

My own sport relied on reflexes being on point so I'm no expert on relaxants. It's definitely a very tricky business.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Lol, when I used to go out to bars and play billiards before covid, there was a point between 1.5 and 3 beers where I couldn't miss a shot

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

THC is illegal in most of the world still. It's like how testing positive for cocaine probably isn't good for your odds.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

They don't really mention if it's illegal or not to their reasoning. They only use three parameters for the decision.

source

They argue for points 2 (health risk) and 3 (commonly abused), both of which cigarettes and alcohol fit right in, but are unrestricted.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Why, exactly, do you think THC and cocaine are illegal for recreational consumption in most of the world? Someone decided one day that they really didn't like the way it looks?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Cultural imperialism and racism, really. The US was the driving force behind the war on drugs, and boy were our drug laws not passed to do anything except oppress inconvenient demographic groups.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If only people were upset about this rather than a "man" winning at women's boxing.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

They are upset enough to write an article

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

I wasn't talking about the AP. I was talking about how this has 7 comments despite being up for 2 hours while there are other threads with dozens of people complaining about how a "man" is boxing women at the Olympics.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 months ago

China commits fraud up and down its entire economy. Then they give excuses so stupid that they insult everyone’s intelligence. “Oh the athletes’ food was tainted with steroids, whoopsie daisy.” I mean Jesus fuckin Christ. China has earned its reputation for wide-scale fraud. I don’t trust anything they produce.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Sprinter Erriyon Knighton tested positive for a banned substance that an arbitration panel determined came from contaminated meat, a decision that keeps the 200-meter specialist eligible to run at the upcoming U.S. Olympic trials.

Food contamination is a real issue. It helps that everyone tested positive for the exact same substance in basically the exact same concentration, because usually it's better to design your doping protocols tailored to each athlete's body and training. Just intuitively, it's not exactly standard practice to have your entire Olympic-level team shoot up on steroids at the same exact time.

Nevertheless, the pool isn't slow: the US set the 1500m free and 4x100 medley women's records. Meanwhile, WADA has been testing Chinese athletes far more than everyone else.

Edit: just to be clear, I don't think his spread is even unreasonable in context. Phelps swam a 22.93 50m and a 47.51 100m (1.65s pace difference). Pan swam a 21.92 50m and a 46.40 100m (2.56s pace difference). For reference, Dressel did 50m in 21.04 and 100m in 46.96... but while Dressel is basically specialized at training for short stints, Pan also trains for 400m events so his back half is expected to not fall off as hard anyway (not to the level of Michael "my lactic acid doesn't build up" Phelps, though).

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

In case anyone isn't aware, all professional athletes at that level dope. Some countries just take it further than others

[–] [email protected] -4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Theoretical question - would it be possible to get so gassed up that if you peed in the pool you'd make everyone else test positive?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

I don't think so. It would probably be enough to kill you. Even if you did put enough in the water to make an impact on the other swimmers in the short time they're in the pool, I'm not sure that it would be absorbed into the hair properly to show up in hair tests.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Not unless you want to die