British swimmer Adam Peaty appears to have questioned China’s victory in the men’s 4×100 meter medley relay and really spoke his mind about whether he’ll be back at the Olympics.
Qin Haiyang and Sun Jiajun, two members of the gold medal winning squad, were among 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine prior to the Tokyo Olympics, according to an investigation by the New York Times.
Adam Peaty holding his silver medal after the Men’s 100m Breaststroke Final(Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
The swimmers were cleared to compete with the belief being they had unknowingly ingested the drug via contaminated food.
Peaty, who raced alongside his teammates Oliver Morgan, Duncan Scott and Matt Richards, finished outside of the podium and placed fourth.
Swimmer holds breath for over five minutes
He has insisted his frustrations with the event isn’t bitterness at the result and also seemed to reference allegations that Qin tested positive for a different performance-enhancing drug in 2017, which was blamed on food contamination as well.
He called on the Olympic officials to do their job to ensure absolutely no cheating of any kind was taking place.
Peaty said: “If you touch and you know that you’re cheating, you’re not winning. For me, if you’ve been on that and you have been ‘contaminated’ twice, I think as an honorable person you should be out of the sport.”
Qin Haiyang posing with his teammates after winning gold in the 4×100 meters medley relay (Adam Pretty/Getty Images)
The British swimmer did not confirm whether this would be his last Olympics and said he would be taking time away from the sport after Paris.
However, he did say that the GB team will use these Olympics as fuel for the next one.
He continued: “We’ll use it to our advantage for the next four years, whether I’m there or not.
“I know these boys will carry that and we’ll see how they do in four years’ time.”
He closed by saying: “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. I think it’s got to be stricter.”
For his part, Qin appeared to hit back at Peaty in an Instagram post.
He shared a picture of the 4x100m relay team with the caption: “We did it! Olympic champion! Any doubt is just a joke. Stress will only make us stronger.”
UNILAD has contacted the Chinese Olympic Committee for comment.
