Behind the Scenes of the Chinese Doping Scandal

During the 2024 Polish Swimming Championships (which qualify swimmers for the 2024 Olympics in Paris this summer), a swimmer in the Women's 200 IM final ended up in the wrong lane halfway through the race and ended up getting disqualified for it. We discuss how this happened, why it was a DQ, and what questions this raises about the rules for this race.

SwimSwam Co-Founders Braden Keith (Editor-in-Chief) and Mel Stewart (CEO) sit down to divulge how the story of 23 Chinese swimmers testing positive and walking away unscathed unfolded over the weekend and what it means moving forward. Stewart and Keith discuss USADA's role in breaking this story, what WADA's independent investigation could bring to light, and the plausibility that this was actually caused by a contaminated kitchen vs intentional doping.

2x Olympic Champion and now 3x British Olympian James Guy spoke with SwimSwam after it came to light over the weekend that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive for TMZ in January of 2021. Early in the week, Guy had tweeted "Ban them all and never compete again" and expressed similar frustration today, namely in WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) for allowing such a situation to occur.

On Friday, April 19, sources told SwimSwam that the gold-medal-winning Chinese women's 800 Free Relay from the Tokyo Olympics would be disqualified and that the silver-medal USA women's team would be bumped up to gold. The next morning, the Herald Sun reported that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive for TMZ in January of 2021 at a training camp, just a few months before the Tokyo Olympic Games. Many of those athletes went on to win medals in Tokyo. No one had heard about this until now.

Brendan Burns is coming off of a career NCAA performance where he not only defended his NCAA title in the 100 back but also made 3 NCAA A finals for the first time. Burns reflects on his time as an Indiana Hoosier and what's next for him in and out of the pool.

Today on the SwimSwam Breakdown, we discuss the myriad of high-level meets that occurred last week, including the Pro Swim in San Antonio, the Canadian Open, and South African Trials.

Daniel Roy was a 5 time All-American at Stanford, where he holds the team record in the 200 breast. He was the 2017 Junior World Champion in the 200 breast. In mid-March at the Federal Way Sectionals, just two and a half months into his comeback, he dropped at 2:09.57 which places his 7th in the world in the 200 breast this year.

Bob Bowman was officially introduced as the Director of Swimming & Diving at the University of Texas on Tuesday, giving a press conference in the UT Football stadium. Listen to what Bowman has learned throughout his time at NBAC, ASU, and Michigan that he will carry with him to Texas and how he plans to balance training his pros in Tempe with his new responsibilities in Austin.

In 2008, Arizona State cut the swimming program, but it was saved and maintained by a grassroots fundraising effort by students, coaches, and alumni. In 2015, ASU hired Bob Bowman to revitalize the program. And now, 9 years later, the ASU men have won their first NCAA team title in program history. 

Leon Marchand defended his NCAA title in the 400 IM tonight, although he was over 3 seconds slower in the event than he was last year. This was just one night after he DEMOLISHED the NCAA record in the 500 freestyle. What was going on there?