Olympics | China sees zero occurrence of doping at Paris Olympics: official

PARIS, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- China's Olympic delegation for Paris 2024 has successfully achieved the goal of "zero occurrence" of doping issues, as the Chinese government maintains "zero tolerance" towards doping, said a senior official with the Chinese delegation said on Sunday.

As of August 10, 151 athletes competing in 35 events from China’s sports delegation had undergone 214 doping tests, a decrease from the 230 tests conducted during the Tokyo Olympics. This reflects the international anti-doping organization's recognition of the clean nature of Chinese athletes and the effectiveness of China's anti-doping measures, Liu Guoyong, deputy head of the delegation, told a press conference.

Liu emphasized China's comprehensive efforts in establishing a "clean national team anti-doping ecosystem," saying that by focusing on cleanliness in various aspects such as the national teams, training facilities, support teams, food, drugs and nutrition, external support, social environment, competition processes and ethical standards, Chinese athletes' self-awareness and the national teams' anti-doping management have been enhanced to prevent doping risks.

"A standardized, systematic, and procedural anti-doping work system for training and competition has been established," he declared.

The Chinese government has reinforced the importance of winning gold medals for moral integrity, sportsmanship, and clean competition, maintaining a resolute stance of "zero tolerance" towards doping issues, Liu added.

Data show that in 2023, the China Anti-Doping Center conducted over 33,000 doping tests, exceeding 10 percent of the global total. The number of doping violations decreased from 92 cases in 2017 to 30 cases in 2023, with the violation rate dropping from 0.53 percent to 0.09 percent, according to Liu.

"We will also extend the successful anti-doping governance experience in competitive sports to youth sports, social sports, and professional sports fields to further promote the high-quality development of China's anti-doping work in all around and safeguard building China into a sporting powerhouse," Liu said.

China’s delegation for Paris Olympics, consisting of 404 athletes competing in 232 events across 30 sports, clinched 40 gold, 27 silver and 24 bronze medals, marking its best overseas performance since it comprehensively participated in a Summer Olympics in 1984.