Adam Peaty has called for a “fair game” as anti-doping concern lingered on the opening morning of swimming in Paris. After months of controversy, heated allegations and vitriolic counter-claims, sparked by anti-doping revelations involving 23 Chinese swimmers, on Saturday it was at last time for some actual action in the pool.
While the morning began without incident, politics and controversy were never far from the surface. “It’s always in the back of your mind as an athlete,” said Peaty, the three-time Olympic gold medallist, after qualifying second-fastest in the men’s 100m breaststroke heats. “You definitely want a fair game, you want to win fair and be around people who do the same and live by the same values.”
Peaty’s Chinese rival Qin Haiyang – who was among those who tested positive for a banned substance before the Tokyo Olympics but were allowed to compete with no suspension after anti-doping authorities blamed environmental contamination – qualified ninth in the heats. On Friday, Qin had blamed a “European and American” plot for vigorous anti-doping testing of the Chinese team in Paris.
“That’s all I’ll say on that – I think we all know what I’m talking about,” Peaty said. “But at the same time we’ve got a job to do, so we can’t let that be a cloud in front of the road.”
The war in Ukraine also loomed large in the breaststroke, with Evgenii Somov, the only Russian to compete in the pool with neutral status, qualifying for the semi-finals in 13th. He will be joined in the next round by the Belarusian Ilya Shymanovich, also granted neutral status, after the short-course world record holder qualified behind Peaty in third.
America’s Katie Ledecky qualified fastest for Saturday evening’s women’s 400m freestyle final, beating home Australia’s defending Olympic champion, Ariarne Titmus. The final has been hailed as one of the races of the meet, with Ledecky and Titmus going head-to-head alongside the Canadian prodigy Summer McIntosh.
After the spectator-less meet in Tokyo three years ago, athletes were relishing the opportunity to race in front of a near-capacity crowd at La Défense Arena, a 30,000-seat converted indoor rugby stadium.
“I’m really happy to have a crowd here – so many GB flags up there,” said Peaty’s compatriot James Wilby, who qualified sixth in the breaststroke. “The main thing for me is that somewhere in those stands are my family and that’s something we’ll have for the rest of our lives.”
But still the controversy of recent months lingered. “Clean, fair competition is what we want,” he said.
