World Aquatics summoned to US inquiry into Chinese swimmers

The executive director of World Aquatics (WA) has been summoned to testify in the United States over the controversy surrounding Chinese competitors who failed dope tests, the international swimming body confirmed on Friday.

“World Aquatics can confirm that its executive director, Brent Nowicki, was served with a witness subpoena by the United States government,” WA said in an e-mail to AFP, without saying who had issued the summons.

“It would not be appropriate for World Aquatics to provide more detail on who is running the American investigation,” said the statement. 

WA said it wanted to stress that “Nowicki has only been asked to testify as a witness” ahead of any potential US action against WADA.

The case stems from revelations in April that 23 Chinese swimmers failed tests for heart drug trimetazidinein 2021.

They were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympics, where they won three golds, after WADA accepted the Chinese explanation that the positive results were caused by food contamination at their hotel.

Eleven of the swimmers are set to compete in the Paris Olympics which start at the end of July.

In May, a US House of Representatives Committee on China asked the country’s Justice Department and the FBI to look into the case under a law that allows investigations of suspected doping outside the United States.