In the first days of 2021, seven months before the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics, 23 of China’s best swimmers tested positive for the same banned drug at a domestic meet.
Chinese antidoping officials investigated and declared the case an unusual mass-contamination event that could be traced to the presence of a heart medication, trimetazidine, known as TMZ, in the kitchen of a hotel where the swimmers had stayed for a New Year’s event in late December 2020 and early January 2021.
The World Anti-Doping Agency, the global authority that oversees national drug-testing programs, looked into the episode but then accepted that theory and allowed China to keep the results secret.
Organizations:
TMZ, Doping Agency
Locations:
Tokyo, China