American Olympic legend Dara Torres agreed with the criticism levied on the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) as a scandal broke out only a few months earlier than the 2024 Paris Games.
It was revealed within the spring that 23 Chinese swimmers examined constructive for a banned coronary heart remedy earlier than the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and had been nonetheless allowed by WADA to compete. Five of the swimmers went on to win medals, together with two gold. Eleven of the swimmers who examined constructive forward of Tokyo are set to compete later this summer time in Paris.
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Dara Torres competes within the ladies’s 50-meter freestyle swimming last on the National Aquatics Center in the course of the Beijing Olympic Games on Aug. 17, 2008. (TIMOTHY CLARY/AFP by way of Getty Images)
Decorated American swimmers Michael Phelps and Allison Schmiit testified in Congress final month that athletes misplaced all religion in WADA to eliminate the cheaters of their sport.
“I 100% agree. They’ve fully failed athletes,” Torres advised Fox News Digital in a latest interview. “I got here from the period of the East German after which the Chinese, and there have been random swimmers from completely different nations that had been doping. First, total, I don’t understand how you’ve got a aware doing that as a result of it ought to be equal floor.
“You shouldn’t really feel nice successful in the event you did it by dishonest. And I really feel like there must be extra intricate testing to be forward of the dopers and never behind the dopers. I do know Travis Tygart, he’s the top of the USADA. He was really very upset about that. He’s doing every part in his energy to guarantee that there’s going to be an excellent enjoying subject and clear sport.”
Dara Torres of the United States is proven earlier than the ladies’s 50-meter freestyle last on the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in the course of the 2000 Summer Olympics. (Al Bello/Getty Images)
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Torres completed her Olympics profession with 12 medals – tied for probably the most amongst feminine swimmers.
WADA on Tuesday cleared itself of any wrongdoing in dealing with the case involving the Chinese swimmers.
A particular prosecutor, appointed by the company, decided that WADA’s resolution to not punish the Chinese athletes was “cheap” and didn’t present favoritism.
WADA President Witold Banka stated the particular prosecutor’s investigation confirmed “that there was no impropriety linked to WADA’s dealing with of the case.”
Dara Torres, left, is proven after the ladies’s 50-meter freestyle occasion in the course of the 2012 U.S. Olympic Swimming Team Trials in Omaha, Nebraska. (Al Bello/Getty Images)
He stated WADA’s subsequent step could be to fulfill with outdoors authorized counsel to see “what measures may be taken towards people who have made unfaithful and doubtlessly defamatory allegations.”
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“These allegations have been extraordinarily damaging to WADA’s fame and to the arrogance and belief that athletes and different stakeholders have within the company and within the international anti-doping system,” Banka added.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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