The Chinese were afraid to bring doping to Sydney
The Olympic Organizing Committee has officially announced that the Chinese team has reduced its entry list by approximately 40 athletes. It is known that at least seven of them - rowers - were forced to abandon the trip to Sydney because they realized that they would not pass doping tests there. Most likely, others withdrew from the competition for the same reason.

On Wednesday, Patrick Chamache, one of the International Olympic Committee's medical experts, announced the Chinese Rowing Federation's sensational decision not to send seven athletes, including both men and women, to Sydney. Chinese officials honestly stated the reason: preliminary tests showed the presence of the banned drug erythropoietin (EPO) in the body of the athletes. And a little later, a representative of the Sydney organizing committee, Milton Cockburn, announced that the largest Asian team (its strength was supposed to be 310 people) was reduced by 10% - this has never happened in the history of the Olympic Games. Cockburn declined to name those who were expelled from the national team or the reasons that led Chinese sports officials to do so. True, he referred to the organizers’ recent request to all countries to send as few athletes as possible to Australia - there are not enough beds in the Olympic Village. However, most likely (and sources who wish to remain anonymous confirm this) the reason for the rest is the same as for the rowers - the fear of being caught doping.
The IOC was delighted with the decision of the Chinese National Olympic Committee. It’s clear why: a centralized, constant fight against doping two years ago became one of the main principles of the organization’s new strategy. And the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, created in November, IOC Vice-President Richard Pound, believes that the action of the Chinese is proof of the effectiveness of the work of his subordinates. “This is a sign that we have been recognized as a real force,” he said. Pound was also supported by IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch, who intends to make the Sydney Games the cleanest in the history of sports: “I’m just happy that this happened. It means our new system is working great.” And another vice president, Anita Defrantz, added to what the chief said: “Let this be a warning to those who were going to win the Olympics with the help of illegal drugs.”
The IOC leaders chose not to mention the other side of the coin. And she is. After all, the reduction of the Chinese team proves not only that sports leaders have become truly afraid of doping experts, but also that athletes continue to actively use doping. And there are no guarantees that the remaining 270 members of the Chinese team will arrive in Sydney “clean”.
This is evidenced, for example, by the following fact. The famous team of Chinese track and field athletes-stayers, led by Ma Yuren (Chinese athletes brought up by this coach with the help of potent illegal drugs in the first half of the 90s, dropped several seconds from world records), conducted pre-Olympic training in one of the remote areas of Tibet. However, representatives of the anti-doping agency managed to come there to check them four times! After the fourth, the team coach decided to transfer it to another place - where, no one, not even Chinese officials, knows.
The reason why this was done is obvious. If during checks it had turned out that Chinese track and field athletes had EPO in their bodies, their performance in Sydney could have been put an end to. Now coaches and the pharmacologists who help them have time to “cleanse” athletes. And everyone knows that the increased number of blood cells, by which the drug is detected, can be brought back to normal within a week - with the help, for example, of overload. Moreover, others may now follow the example of the Chinese hiding from anti-doping fighters.
But that is not all. Many experts believe that in their desire to rid the sport of doping, Samaranch and Pound went too far. Firstly, the huge number of tests (about two thousand have been carried out so far) has seriously disrupted the preparation schedule of some teams. The athletes simply could not train calmly, waiting every day for the next inspection. And secondly, the introduction of the EPO test actually led to the fact that those who were actually innocent began to be included in the lists of those guilty of doping.
The fact is that the concentration of blood cells increases not only as a result of erythropoietin consumption. Its increase may be a consequence of long-term training at high altitudes or in a pressure chamber - and many athletes resort to such methods (for example, long-distance runners and cyclists). That is, the same athletes from China, perhaps, did without doping, but their month-long stay in Tibet still equated them to lawbreakers. However, the IOC does not seem to pay attention to such trifles.

ALEXEY J-DOSPEKHOV

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 166 dated 09/07/2000, page 14

Authors:

Alexey Dospehov