Adam Peaty has suggested rival Qin Haiyang “should be out of the sport” as he questioned the legitimacy of China’s victory in Sunday night’s Olympics 2024 medley relay.
In what may prove the final swim of Peaty’s career, Great Britain’s men were beaten into fourth by a Chinese quartet that included both Qin and Sun Jiajun, two of the 23 swimmers who tested positive for a banned substance in the lead up to the Tokyo Olympics.
The group were cleared to compete at those Games by the World Anti-Doping Agency, who accepted Chinese authorities’ explanation of contamination. However, the positive tests were not disclosed publicly at the time and were only brought to light by a New York Times investigation earlier this year, sparking a doping storm in the lead up to Paris.
According to the same newspaper, Qin had also tested positive for a different performance-enhancing drug several years earlier but again escaped punishment on contamination grounds.
“One of my favourite quotes I’ve seen lately is that there’s no point winning if you’re not winning fair,” Peaty said. “I think you know that truth in your heart. If you touch and you know that you’re cheating, you’re not winning, right?
“For me, if you’ve been on that and you have been ‘contaminated’ twice, I think as an honourable person you should be out of the sport.
“I don’t want to paint a whole nation or group of people with one brush, I think that’s very unfair. But there have been two cases of it and it’s very disappointing.”
America’s swimmers have been particularly vocal on the issue, with star Caeleb Dressel claiming on the eve of the Games that he was not confident that none of his rivals were doping.
Britain’s athletes have been more coy, but speaking after the final night of competition Peaty called on anti-doping chiefs to do more to keep the sport clean.
“I’ve tried to keep out of the conversation until now for the benefit of the team,” Peaty said. “But I think, to the people that need to do their job - wake up and do your job.
"I think we have to have faith in the system. But we also don’t. The Americans have been very vocal. We didn’t want to get distracted with that. But I think it’s got to be stricter. What I’ve said from the start is that it’s fraud. If you’re cheating, it’s fraud.”
Peaty won 100m breaststroke silver earlier in the week, narrowly failing to defend the title he won in Rio and Tokyo, and subsequently tested positive for Covid before returning to swim the medley relay.
At 29, he is by no means certain to carry on to Los Angeles in four years’ time, but while dropping several hints towards retirement, says he will take time before deciding his immediate future.
"I think tomorrow is never promised, so why worry?” he told the BBC. "If my heart wants it, my heart wants it and I will absolutely sign that contract with myself to do it. But that may be a long way away.
"I think I have got to step away from the sport because it has just hurt too much this time, it really has. It could have been my last one [swim] here.
"If my family needs me, they need me. If they don't and they want me to do it... you can't lie to your heart and if the heart doesn't want it, the heart doesn't want it but I'm going to enjoy today instead of worrying about tomorrow."
In the pool, the USA came from behind to claim another Games of swim supremacy with two gold medals on the final night.
Australia had led the swimming medal table for much of the week and came into the session with seven golds to America’s six.
However, world record swims from Bobby Finke in the men’s 1500m freestyle and then the women’s 4x100m medley relay team saw the US claim top spot.
Daniel Wiffen, already the 800m gold medalist from earlier in the meet, added bronze behind Finke to ensure this will be Ireland’s most successful Olympics across all sports, even with seven days of competition to do.
The sixth medal of Ireland’s Games equals their tally from London 2012, but boxer Kellie Harrington is guaranteed to win a seventh after reaching the women’s 60kg final.
