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      in Elections

      ‘Cheated’: Chinese Doping Case Roils Swimming

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      An American who won silver in Tokyo calls for an investigation. A British gold medalist demands bans. But the most bitter fight was between antidoping leaders.The revelation that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for a banned drug seven months before the Tokyo Olympics but were secretly cleared and allowed to continue competing has exposed a bitter and at times deeply personal rift inside the fight to keep drugs out of international sports, and brought new criticism of the global authority that oversees drug-testing.A New York Times investigation uncovered previously unreported details of the 2021 episode, in which a contingent of Chinese swimmers, including nearly half of the team that China sent to the Tokyo Games, tested positive for a banned prescription heart medicine that can help athletes increase stamina and reduce recovery times.Within hours, the disclosure of an incident that had been a secret for more than three years was roiling swimming. An American Olympian who took home a silver medal from Tokyo said she felt her team had been “cheated” in a race won by China. A British gold medalist called for a lifetime ban for the swimmers involved on social media. And a simmering feud between global antidoping officials and their U.S. counterparts burst into the open with caustic statements and legal threats.“Any time there’s a situation where positive tests aren’t clearly identified and gone through a proper process and protocol, it allows for doubt to creep into athletes’ minds who are competing clean,” said Greg Meehan, the Stanford University coach who led the U.S. women’s team at the Tokyo Games. “When they’re going into competitions, you can’t help but think, ‘Am I competing in a clean event?’”The fallout comes less than 100 days before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. That has created uncomfortable headlines both for the sport but also for the Games themselves, which depend on global antidoping regulators to ensure fair play and the integrity of the medals awarded — which can validate years of training, define athletes’ careers and confer pride on a nation.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 75 Shares159 Views

      in Elections

      Takeaways From Our Chinese Swimming Investigation

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      A doping case involving Olympic swimmers has left unanswered questions and raised new concerns about the actions of a global antidoping regulator.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.All the while, the swimmers were allowed to continue racing, without suspensions or disqualifications. Some of the swimmers who provided positive samples went on to qualify for the Olympics, and to win medals — including three golds — for China. A few are favorites to win again at the Paris Olympics this year.The incident would have remained in the shadows, a secret known only to a select few, had details of one of the most curious episodes in swimming not made their way out of the sealed files of the organizations trusted to keep sports fair.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in US Politics

      ‘It’s a crisis’: US summer pools closed or cut back amid lifeguard shortage

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      ‘It’s a crisis’: US summer pools closed or cut back amid lifeguard shortageOfficials say not enough lifeguards to open pools safely but critics say decision to cut services during Covid has had knock-on effect A nationwide shortage of lifeguards is forcing local pools across the US to close for the summer, according to reports.In major cities such as New York, Chicago, New Orleans, and elsewhere, public pools are reducing their hours of operation, or shutting down entirely amid an apparent shortage of lifeguards.A third of pools in the US will be affected by staff shortages, according to the American Lifeguard Association, the BBC reported. Experts estimate that the number of affected pools could increase to half by September.“The shortage is real,” lifeguard Motti Eliyahu said to BBC.“It is a crisis,” the director of health and safety at the American Lifeguard Association, Bernard Fisher, added.With shortages are already inhibiting summer swimming, cities are managing in different ways.Weekend warriors: why exercise doesn’t have to be regular to be good for youRead moreNew Orleans city officials said last month that the municipal government would only open five of its 15 season pools, with plans to open up three additional pools if the city managed to recruit more lifeguards, the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate reported.Even as temperatures in Chicago reached 100F (38C) last month, the city kept its pools shut down past the usual 24 June opening date, because it said it was not able to recruit sufficient lifeguards.City officials reassigned lifeguards from local beaches to open up some of the pools on 5 July, NBC Chicago reported.Some have also blamed the lifeguard shortage in Chicago on the mishandling of sexual assault and harassment complaints within the city’s lifeguard program, which led to an investigation and the resignation of several park district employees last year, according to Block Club City Chicago.New York officials announced on Wednesday that they would be increasing the starting pay for lifeguards and developing a training program to staff the city’s pools, which have been largely empty amid the staffing shortages, reported NBC New York. New York has roughly half the number of lifeguards than prior to the pandemic.Experts say that although concerns about a shortage of lifeguards have persisted for years, the Covid pandemic and issues in the labor market are exacerbating the existing problem.YMCA water safety expert Lindsay Mondick said a lack of available US student visas has worsened the shortage, because many lifeguards in the country are foreign students. The slow release of more visas is having only limited effect on the staffing shortages.“We have been concerned about this potential lifeguard shortage for a number of years now,” Mondick said to BBC. “But I would say that Covid and the current tight labor market has really exacerbated this issue.”Fisher, of the lifeguard association, also said simply increasing wages may not solve staffing issues because not enough people are training to be lifeguards.Fisher said he fears that if cities cannot find ways to recruit more trained lifeguards and open up local pools, people may seek out unmonitored and possibly more dangerous swimming options in order to taste relief from the summer heat.“It’s such a crisis that if we don’t start resolving it this year, it’s going to be even worse next year, which I just can’t imagine,” Fisher said to BBC.TopicsUS newsSwimmingFitnessUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      in US Politics

      Olympic champion Klete Keller pleads not guilty to charges over US Capitol riot

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      Olympic swimming champion Klete Keller has pleaded not guilty to seven charges over the invasion of the US Capitol by a pro-Donald Trump mob in January.The charges against the 38-year-old, who won two relay gold medals as a teammate of Michael Phelps at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, include civil disorder, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds. Keller entered the not-guilty pleas during a video hearing, and his next court appearance is due on 6 April. In a criminal complaint, an FBI agent said the 6ft 6in Keller was easy to identify in video of the riot due to his height and the fact that he was wearing his Team USA jacket, “which also appears to bear a Nike logo on the front right side and a red and white Olympic patch on the front left side.”Keller turned himself into authorities in January and was released without a bond. Keller deleted his social media accounts after news of the charges against him became public. Swimming website SwimSwam reported that prior to the deletion, Keller had written several posts in support of Trump.In recent years, Keller has spoken about his struggles to adapt after his swimming career ended. “I found the real-world pressure much more intimidating and much more difficult to deal with because I went from swimming to having three kids and a wife within a year and so the consequences of not succeeding were very, very real and if I didn’t make a sale or if my manager was ticked off with me, or If I got fired – oh shoot, you have no health insurance. It’s very concrete,” he told an Olympic Channel podcast.Trump became the first president in history to be impeached twice, after he incited the mob to invade the Capitol, although he was later acquitted after the Senate fell 10 votes short of the two-thirds majority required to convict high crimes and misdemeanors. Trump baselessly claimed he lost the presidential election because of voter fraud. Five people, including a Capitol police officer, died as a result of the ensuing violence. More