Satire: Nothing to see says the IOC

Just before the Paris Olympics a doping scandal dating back to the Tokyo Olympics was revealed. Long story short, 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for a powerful banned substance but WADA, the international IOC backed anti-doping agency, was not allowed to visit China for further testing.

Instead, WADA took at face value the information from China’s state controlled anti-doping agency CHINADA that the swimmers had been contaminated via a hotel kitchen, and the levels of the forbidden substance at any rate was too low to make a difference.

As Niklas ”@Kluddniklas” Eriksson hints in his latest satire for Kinamedia the IOC not only accepted WADA not being allowed to perform tests in China, it also helped sweeping the case under the rug by keeping it secret from the rest of the world even as the Chinese swimmers went on to win several medals in Tokyo.

Unfortunately for everyone and especially the IOC, the story doesn’t stop there. Once the Paris Olympics started, a similar case was revealed this week including two Chinese swimmers who tested positive for banned steroids in 2022.

WADA and the IOC again accepted CHINADA’s explanation, this time that the two swimmers were contaminated when eating hamburgers. One of the two swimmers earlier this week one a gold medal in Paris.

As the athletic community is far from confident in both the capacity and the will of WADA and the IOC to guarantee a clean Olympics, both Germany and the US have taken steps to investigate the Chinese swimming team’s doping scandals on its own.

This lead the IOC to threaten a withdrawal of the Winter Olympics from Salt Lake City, that was awarded the 2034 games just last month.

”If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging” is a law that president Thomas Bach and the IOC sweeps under the rug as lightheartedly as the next Chinese doping case. And who could blame them, given all the scandals it has endured before without any consequences whatsoever?

The above cartoon can be viewed in full size here.

A full collection of KluddNiklas’ works for Kinamedia can be seen via this link.