Sideline Story

No room for anti-doping double standards

While athletes put up amazing performances at the Paris Olympics, addressing the issue of doping that undermines the integrity of the prestigious competition is crucial. In this episode, we touch on the controversies over the case where the USADA allegedly allowed athletes who tested positive for banned substances to compete at the Olympics without facing proper sanctions, while launching criticism over the food contamination incident involving Chinese swimmers. In addition, we talk about the breakthrough performances of Chinese Olympians in Paris and memorable moments at the Games.

Duration:: 32m
Broadcast on:: 09 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Hello and welcome to Signline's Story, your destination for sports news, analysis and discussion. I'm Yang Guan, today we will continue our Olympic chat and touch on some breakthrough performances from Chinese athletes, the touching stories during the games and the most memorable moments in Paris. For these topics, I'm joined here by my co-hosts Tian Yu and Brandi Yei Tremotli from South Africa. Brandon, how's it going? And you are still able to watch some Olympic action from home, right? Of course, yeah. I mean, all of the sports channels have just been wrapped up with Olympics, so normally we've got a football channel, a rugby channel, a cricket channel, but now all of those channels are just 24/7 broadcasting Olympic action, so the coverage of Olympic action in South Africa has been immense. Fantastic. The weeks of competition and the full of exciting action so far across different sports. Of course, here in Beijing, our focus is on Team China. Chinese athletes have made some breakthrough performances on top of my head. Zheng Ching Wen became the first, not only the Chinese woman, but also the first Asian woman to win a tennis gold medal in women's singles. Don't yeah, when won Team China as the first ever BMX, Olympic gold medal, Brandon from your side, how do you view these breakthroughs? I think, you know, the amount of tennis chats that we've had on sideline, I think it's very hard to think about any other achievement for me personally for Team China other than Zheng Ching Wen's Olympic gold medal. I think that moment is so big in so many different ways. When you think about Zheng Ching Wen herself as a person of course, Yang Guang, we got to see her at the Asian Games winning a title there and not facing too many challenges. And since then we've seen her growth, we've seen her ups, we've seen her dance. It's been like an ongoing drama following Zheng Ching Wen's career. I mean, it really, some of it does seem like a movie because as soon as we thought she was going to start climbing the ranks and winning titles and doing the most, she would then get knocked out in a first round or deliver a really poor performance in a final. So you never really knew what you were going to get with her. And as a fan of her, it's very hard to watch that, but at the same time as an outside and just as a general sports fan, it's so enthralling to watch her, at least in the past because you never knew what you were going to get. And I mean, an example of that would be Wimbledon. I mean, we were expecting so much from her and she went out in the first round and we discussed that, you know, on the show when we had our Wimbledon chat. And I was very skeptical of what her future at least for 2024 was going to look like. I thought this is going to be a huge mental block for her. She's not going to be able to recover from this in time for the Olympics. You know, it's just going to throw her completely. And I remember Yang Guang, you said what she needs to do is she needs to just wipe this moment at the Wimbledon first round last out of her mind, focus on the Olympics and just do the best that she can there. And I was just thinking, man, like as a 21, 22 year old, I don't know how quickly she's going to be able to get over that disappointment, focus on something like the Olympics, change to a different surface and perform at the highest level. And then Zhang Chen Nguyen must have seen our podcast because she said, I'm going to prove this guy wrong. And I'm going to absolutely dominate the Olympics. And that's what she did. I mean, she beats eager, she'll be untick. She got into the final, didn't seem to display any nerves and delivered a historic moment for China in one of the world's most popular sports. This is going to be a moment as sports fans and particularly Chinese fans are going to remember for such a long time. And I think it's going to have such a huge impact on the future of Chinese athletes in non traditional Chinese sports, tennis just being one of them. But I think that's going to filter across numerous sports like we've already seen with the BMX performances. And I think we're going to see it in other performances too. We've also seen some great performances from the Chinese ladies and sevens rugby, which is traditionally a European sport. So I think this is, but you know, and all of those achievements aside, those are all great. But Zhang Chen Nguyen winning a gold medal at the Paris Olympics for tennis at her age, considering all that she's gone through, that is huge. I remember also said, if Jun Chi Nguyen can get past the likes of Shui Yang Tae for once, she would be on next level and she did it in Paris. It was like a hump that she needed to get over, right? She needed to start and you've said this before, Yang Guong, you've said once she starts beating those top seeded players, you know, top five, top 10 players on a consistent level, that's going to help her become more consistent. But I also think just getting over that hump of beating the real dominant world number one in women's tennis and to overcome that challenge, I think that was huge for her mentally. And I think we saw that in the final, you know, when she won the gold medal, but beyond that, hopefully we can see that level of performance going into the future, particularly with grand slam tournaments. From my side of things, I think these breakthroughs are huge confidence boost for Chinese athletes and for the nation as a whole, because previously, China was sometimes labeled as a delegation doing extremely well in some sports, like table tennis diving, shooting, weightlifting, badminton, but not so much in some other sports, especially those sports dominated, long dominated by European and American athletes. I think tennis is one of them. And judging when just tells everyone, Chinese athletes can do equally well in tennis. And Panjian Leu tells everyone, Chinese swimmers can also be the fastest, breaking those world rivals. You can imagine what impact that's going to have on future generations of athletes when you think about, yeah, of course, the immense size of China's population and the interest in sport that has grown since, you know, the 2008 summer games and the 2022 winter games, and all of the emphasis on sports and healthy lifestyles and all of those sorts of things, we're going to see the identification of so much talent. And now that talent can be spread across a variety of sports. And the fact that some of these kids have now seen people that look like them, speak like them, come from similar backgrounds to them dominating sports that were previously seen as, you know, reserved for the US or Europe or whatever it may be, that idea has now been shattered by junction when. And I think as momentous as that gold medal is, I think the knock on effect that it will have for future generations is even greater. Yeah, it's not only a message for everyone that don't limit yourself, don't let anyone label you and your country. And don't think less of yourself because others may claim that you cannot do this. It's also a promotion for certain sports like tennis, BMX, swimming. So, yeah, I think it's a very positive signal from these Chinese athletes, their breakthrough performances just inspired the whole nation. Yeah. Can you, what do these performances mean to China? Because we were so used to China winning medals in those expected sports. Yeah, it's definitely a large, we have come a long way from previous editions. We've seen Chinese athletes doing great job, like you mentioned, in many events like we have been very good at. But this time, we're seeing a lot of highlights in events that we don't have a traditional advantage in, and I would say tennis, yeah, is the most surprising one, where we have claimed both the historic first goat and in women's singles and also silver in mixed doubles as well. In previous episodes, we've talked about how Chinese players, tennis players, have come out of nowhere in recent years to achieve some very incredible results on the international stage, but honestly, I hadn't expect them to do so well in Paris because it's not only Jun Ching-weng. Yeah. Jun Ching-weng. Yeah. We have also been silver medal in mixed doubles. Yeah. That's incredible. Yeah. And apart from tennis, I think, as you mentioned, we are also seeing China's first goat medal from BMX freestyle, BMX has is origin in the U.S. and it's still kind of a niche sport in China. I think we are generally seeing an increasing number of people willing to engage in sports and a surging interest in taking different kinds of sports activities in China. Yeah, exactly. I've seen so many kids trying out skateboarding, climbing, these new Olympic sports break dancing. Yeah. It's kind of a cool act from these kids, but it's also a sign that China is expanding so much sports-wise. And we talked about pan-jandler and Chinese swimmers, but I have to say, if they do it a rather tough Olympic journey in Paris in terms of how they were received at the game. So there were some ungrounded doping-related accusations towards Chinese swimmers from American media. I think I have to clarify the story a little bit because I think our listeners and audience deserve to know the whole picture, what happened, exactly, happened. Three years ago, 23 Chinese swimmers consumed contaminated food when eating outside ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, and they later tested positive for banned substance. You know, food can sometimes easily lead to positive tests because of the ingredients. You don't know what they put in those dishes. For example, in China, there's a very common, very, very common spicy pepper soup that can easily cause positive tests for athletes. But WADA, the world anti-doping agency and the world swimming governing body, world aquatics and an independent prosecutor ruled after their investigation that there's no violation from the Chinese athletes, which means they acknowledged that this was an accidental case. And there's no intentional doping from Chinese swimmers, and they are claimed to compete. But all of a sudden, the American media jumped out and played big on this matter during the Paris Olympics, especially after Panjang Llewand managed 100m freestyle title. And the Chinese team ended the U.S. dominance in men's medley relay. They really tried to create this context that Chinese swimmers do well because they dope. But the truth is, to ease the worries of some athletes from other delegations, WADA decided to take extra doping tests for Chinese swimmers during the Olympics, seven per day, seven tests a day from early morning, and all the tests returned negative throughout the games. And it's not the end of the story. Media reports discovered that the U.S. brain term Arian Knighton tested positive for a banned substance during an out-of-competition test in March this year. Yet, U.S. ADA put no punishments whatsoever on Knighton and allowed him to participate in Paris qualifiers and following Olympics. What is that? To me, it's clearly a double standard. Yeah, we're clearly seeing double standards here. What do you make of this incident? Because we as a sports podcast, we try to keep our focus on the sports side of things. But it seems like even the Olympics is now politicized by some countries and the used as a platform to play these tricks and attack other countries, rather than celebrate human achievements in sports terms. Yeah, it certainly deviates from the Olympic spirit that we're supposed to see during the games. I think we're definitely seeing double standards being played here. After Panjangil won the title in 100m freestyle race, there are still a ton of Western commentators casting doubts on his performance and accusing pan of using drugs. Yet, like you said, according to World Aquatics, swimmers from China were the most tested athletes in the lead up to the Paris Olympics, with an average of 21 anti-doping tests each, almost four times as much as their US counterparts. So I think if he was not playing, then nobody is. And recently, a group of photos of the US swimmers have gone viral on social media, which shows their unusually red faces after completing their swimming events. I think if you could check out those photos online, you would notice that's not even red. That should be called purple, and that color is normal, right? Yeah, it's normal. And that color only appeared on US swimmers. But in comparison, back in 2022 in Tokyo Olympics, photos showed that their face color was perfectly normal after their swimming races. So I mean, I don't want to raise any conspiracy theories here, but I got to say, it's really weird. And there has been no official explanation so far from the US side. And also back in March, like as you mentioned, US bring to Ariane, Nitin was tested positive for a banned substance, but the US anti-doping agency claimed it was due to contaminated meat, and he was still allowed to compete in the Paris Olympics. That was totally ridiculous because they are accusing the Chinese team for the same thing. For contamination cases from the Chinese athletes, the US ADA demanded sanctions. But meantime, totally ignored to their own athletes' positive cases. Yeah. So I think as a country that has long been mired in doping scandals, the US is the last country that could smear China in doping tests. And I think it is very disrespectful for those athletes who really fought their tooth and nail for glories at the Paris Olympics. Here I want to go deeper into Nitin's case because there are so many details that don't make people convinced with what the US ADA says about him. First of all, like you said, the US ADA claimed that it was a contamination case because of the meat Nitin consumed. But study shows this specific banned substance can rarely be injected through food. Interesting. Yeah. And here this, an independent arbitrary, make the conclusion after Nitin's positive case that the contaminated meat came from the beef from a restaurant in Florida. The problem is the US ADA didn't make any investigation into this case until two months later, it happened to discover the same banned substance from a different batch of beef from the same restaurant in Florida. What a coincidence. How old is Florida? So maybe I've ingested some steroids, maybe I can run the hundreds of tens of things now. Maybe I should get tested, I don't know. I think for me, I should ask, is Nitin going through the same amount of doping tests as Chinese swimmers do? Has anyone doubted if Nitin is cling or not? No. I've seen nothing from media. I think it's important to have clean sports, but it's equally important to have equality in clean sports. Yes. It should not be like, okay, Chinese athletes should have seven tests a day, but US athletes can have just one or two during the Olympics. It's not fair to me. That's the big word. I think the big word, there's equality. I think every couple of years we're going to see different instances, obviously there's always going to be tension between the US and China, whether it's politically or sports competitiveness because they're the two competing powers, particularly in Olympic sports. So there's always going to be a little bit of mudslinging both ways and they both competing and there's a lot of competition on that side, but I think it needs to come down to equality. Obviously, we want to see a clean sport. We want to see any sort of doping eradicated from sports entirely, particularly when it comes to the Olympics where you have the whole world competing in a variety of sports. You want everybody to be at least competing on a level playing field. When it comes to testing, every athlete from every country should be tested equally. You can't then all of a sudden start testing one country 10 times more than another country and messing with their sleep patterns and they eating patterns because then you're also really putting that country on the back foot. And even if it was intentional doping, it was probably one athlete and then it messes up the chances of all the other athletes from that country. And if it wasn't intentional doping and it was accidental, then with all of this additional testing, you can really detract from that country's chances of being successful just because of some sort of accidental contamination in the buildup to a major event. So I think the word that you use there, young, going equality is very important. I think we also need to have equal amounts of punishment. So if someone is found guilty of doping, then that person should be punished at the same level compared to any other athlete from any other country. When testing needs to be increased in a certain sport because a doping case or a contamination case has been found, then all athletes from all countries should be tested equally. Yeah. Equality, I think that's the term we should use here in this context. And that's the spirit of the Olympics, right? We want to see equality. Yeah. I mean, that's ultimately what the Olympic message is. We want to see people from all around the world being treated equally and competing on an equal playing field. So the same should be applied to any doping-related issues. And after all the negative tests from Chinese swimmers, I think the doubt should be stopped. Yeah. It should be cleared. Doping scandals from American athletes aside, we've seen so many positive and heartwarming stories on and off the field at the Paris Olympics that will fully reflect the Olympic spirit. Brandon, from your side, any touching stories you have found so far? Yeah. In gymnastics, when the Brazilian competitor Rebecca Andrade, I believe her name was, and Simone Biles, she also, Rebecca won the gold and in Simone Biles and her US teammate were on the podium with her and they kind of bow down and showed respect to this Brazilian athlete for winning the gold. Of course, Simone Biles and the US team always want to dominate in gymnastics and deliver the best results possible. But they just got down and recognized this incredible performance from this Brazilian athlete and gave her her due and put all of the focus on her as opposed to saying, "Oh, like the referees weren't on my side, or I could have done this. I should have done that." You know, instead of focusing on the negative elements of not winning a gold medal, the Simone Biles and her US teammates gave Rebecca Andrade from Brazil her moment, let her enjoy her gold medal, and they just celebrated a great competitive performance in gymnastics. And I think that was a great representation of the Olympic spirit, celebrating success, but also, you know, having that unity and once the competition is over, just being able to celebrate a great competition and accepting the results and praising each other for the competitiveness that was shown, the Olympic spirit that was shown, and, you know, celebrating each other's performances. And you know, they kind of equally celebrated a gold, a silver and a bronze, but also gave the gold medal winner her due, and I think that was a really great moment. Yeah, winning medals is the goal for every athlete at the Olympics, but meantime, we just cherish these moments when people get together and fully respect each other, tell you any stories. Well, I've got a similar one to Brandon's story. When Chinese badminton player Huoping Zhao stood on the podium to receive the silver medal in women's singles, she held a small badge of the Spanish flag to pay homage to her semi-final opponent Karolina Marine. That was because in the semi-final between them when Marine was one game up, she suffered an injury to her right knee, forcing her to retire from that game. And after the game, the game Hu ran over to Marine and hugged her opponent before she left the court, and she said she wore the Spanish badge on the podium because she hopes that Marine can see that scene. She wishes Marine a speedy recovery. And I think that perfectly embodies sportsmanship and the Olympic spirit. Yeah, it's a nice gesture, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. I think it earned a plaucice and praise, including from the Spanish Olympic committee. Yeah. It's a story of a friendship and respect that fully reflect the cool value of the Olympics. Yeah. There are so many moments that I think France won't forget in the coming years. For me, there's one specific moment I would remember in the years to come that is when Novak Djokovic won the main singles title, his first Olympic gold medal, Golden Slam. He collapsed under the ground, he was shaking, you can clearly see this is a very emotional moment for him. Yeah. I just want to touch on that Novak Djokovic moment because I also watched that final and I remember the cameras specifically zooming in to his hands and you mentioned it young, he was literally shaking. And to see someone that was already so successful, absolutely break down and actually he couldn't believe what he had done. I think there was a good couple of minutes where he just had the towel on his face and he just kind of screamed or wept. You didn't really know what he was doing. But I just think he was having a surreal moment where I think something that he wanted for probably decades finally happened and I don't think it probably still hasn't sunk in, but he just sat there and just thought, I've come through a knee surgery, I'm competing against essentially a child compared to my age and I've finally made my lifelong dream come true. And just to see someone experience that, that was very memorable for me. And then as of South Africa, you know, seeing Tatiana Smith winning that goal, I know that's still a touchy subject because obviously China got the silver, but that was an incredible moment. And the 100 meters final, I mean, you know, to see them all, the male sprinters cross the line so equally and it took a while for the adjudicators to actually deliver the final result, but to see those guys in their hardest moments, just staring at the screen waiting to discover if their dreams had come true, that was incredible to see because I can't imagine being in that moment thinking that screen is going through deliver my fate. I mean, I can't imagine what that must feel like. So that was an incredible photo finish and that it was heartbreaking for me because obviously South Africa's Akane Simbini just missed out on a bronze medal. So that was very hard to see then on social media. So many people said, you know, they were sending their condolences to Akane Simbini, but a lot of people said, okay, now the Olympics is over, you know, he's just broken the national record in South Africa. I think it was 9.8 seconds or whatever it was. It's a great achievement. But so many people are online are saying, let's give the sky a rugby ball and let's see what he can do on the rugby field. So I'm really hoping when the Olympics finish, we can give Akane Simbini a rugby ball and maybe he can, he can start competing in my favorite sports, but yeah, those are probably some of my most memorable moments. Yeah, the Paris Games is full of these kind of beautiful moments that is touching, inspiring. It's these stories, these moments, these inspiring athletes that make the Paris Olympics so enjoyable to watch. With that, we end this episode of "Sideline Story." Thank you so much for joining us. For more news and information of the Paris Olympics, you can also check our website, radio.cgtn.com. Until next time, see you. Hi, this is Nyeo Nyeo and welcome back to another episode of "1000 Wise." Which is your favorite summer sport? Swimming, surfing, diving? In our previous episodes, we met Piak de Gubakdan, fresh from reviving the Olympic Games in the late 19th century. We tagged along on Masuk de Gubakdan's amazing journey participating in ancient Chinese sports, such as the archery ritual. Oops, too weak. Mr. Mark. Today, we are going to a special diving competition. I mean, beyond your imagination, kind of special. It is a diving competition, not from a springboard, but from a swing. Even better yet, the swing is not set on solid ground, but on a boat floating in water. And the match is about to begin. Welcome back, everyone. It's right in the middle of a thrilling water swing show. Two boats, one swing, a light bend, all on a fast-long river. Observe us, the competitors reach the high point, launch into the air, and flip their bodies, but dazzling agility to embrace is the ultimate test of balance, skill, and courage. Wow, say take cool. I know, right? It's amazing. By the way, I'm fun. Baron Piak de Gubakdan from France, en Chante. Welcome, Mr. de Gubakdan, you're in for a treat. Water swing is one of the most exciting traditional sports. I can see that, it's like modern diving, but with a wild twist. Totally wild. Would you like to give it a try? Well, I can't think of a reason not to. I do love sports. Make way, everyone. Mr. de Gubakdan from France is going to give it a try. Welcome, Mr. de Kuberton. Can you share with us why you decided to participate? Well, as I always say, the most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning, but the taking part, the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well. You heard the man, let's give him a big round of applause. Ladies and gentlemen, our next player is a special guest from France, Baron Piak de Gubakdan, and is ready to execute a dive. I didn't expect it to be this windy and wobbly. All right, Piak, you've got this. Take a deep breath and stay calm. Mr. Gubakdan grips the ropes and stars swing. It looks like it's mastered the art of the water swing. Oh, no, the wind is getting stronger. Open water, gusty lens, and boats that just want and stay still is certainly a tough sport. Can he cool off the dive? Stay calm, stay focused and remember to look graceful. The essential thing in life is not conquering, but fighting well. Absolutely incredible. Masuda Gubakdan's adventurous spirit is truly something to admire. It's the same spark that drives athletes across the globe to push their limits and seek greatness and glory. The thrill of the water swing is a perfect example of the staring spirit. The sport, which demands bravery and a willingness to face challenges, has a rich history. About 900 years ago, during the song dynasty, a book called The Eastern Capitol, a dream of splendor, provided a detailed description of the scene of the sport. There are two boats with swings set up on them, acrobats perform various acts on the mass at the stern of the boats. On both sides, there are boats with performers playing drums and flutes. One person gets on the swing, swings to gang momentum onto the framest level, then summer socks and dives into the water. From the description above, we can see that the water swing in the song dynasty shares similarities to modern day diving. To delve deeper into these parallels, I spoke with Professor Tui Lo Chen, PhD, in sports history and researcher at the China Sports Museum. Today our diving is performed from a fixed platform, which makes it easier for athletes to control. However, water swing diving, while similar to modern diving, presents a greater challenge. It involves a specialized set of skills that require extensive practice. The diver must perfectly time their jump. They need to wait until the swing reaches a level position before diving into the water. Jumping too early could result in a collision with the returning swing, and any mismatch in timing could be dangerous. The skill involved in water swing diving surpasses modern diving in some respects due to the dynamic nature of the swing. It's incredible how an ancient sport could be so technically demanding. What about the connection in spirit between the ancient water swing and modern day diving? The promotion of water swing diving reflects a characteristic of public sports promotion in that era. At the same time, athletes invested significant effort into mastering the techniques of water swing diving, embodying the Olympic motto of "faster, higher, stronger." Additionally, water swing diving has a communal aspect. While it may seem like an individual activity, it involves a whole setup with moving boats, swings, and an atmosphere facilitated by gongs, drums, and other instruments. This highlights a spirit of unity and cooperation. A spirit is a form of non-verbal language, and also serves as a universal language that brings people together. Indeed, whether diving from a swing or a board, athletes from ancient times and the modern era share a common spirit of dedication and unity. There is an idiom in Chinese that perfectly describes these athletes. It is "chong feng poi lang," meaning "writing the wind and breaking the waves." It's used metaphorically to describe someone who is not afraid of difficulties, who bravely and vigorously overcomes challenges, advances with great momentum, and achieves success. Just as the water swing players did. The modern Olympics, which were founded by Piak de Gubaktan, are a testament to the enduring spirit of "chong feng poi lang." Athletes from around the world come together to compete at the highest levels, demonstrating not only physical prowess, but also mental resilience and determination. Thank you for joining us on this fascinating journey into the world of water swing diving and its echoes in today's sports. Until next time, take curious, keep exploring, and remember that the spirit of sport can unite us all, no matter where or when we dive in. a new world of water. (audience cheering)