Olympics 2024: US swimming stars testify on anti-doping measures

Phelps and Schmitt will testify on anti-doping before House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight

Reuters June 25, 2024

Michael Phelps testifies before the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, in Washington, US, February 28, 2017. PHOTO: REUTERS

WASHINGTON:

US swimming greats Michael Phelps and Allison Schmitt will testify on Tuesday to a US House of Representatives subcommittee probing a doping case involving Chinese swimmers ahead of this summer's Paris Olympics.

Olympic gold medallists Phelps and Schmitt, as well as Travis Tygart, the chief executive for the US Anti-Doping Agency, will testify to lawmakers on the Republican-controlled House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations about anti-doping measures.

Phelps, with 28 medals to his name, is the most-decorated Olympian of all time. Schmitt won 10 medals over four games. Neither will compete in Paris.

Tuesday's hearing, due to begin at 7 p.m. ET (2300 GMT), will take place two months after the World Anti-Doping Agency confirmed reports that nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine, a banned drug found in heart medication, before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

CHINADA, China's anti-doping agency, has said the swimmers had been inadvertently exposed because of contamination and that they should not be held liable for the positive results. China named its 31-member swim team this month.

WADA said in April it would send a compliance team to assess China's anti-doping program, but leading swimmers, including seven-time gold medallist Katie Ledecky, who is competing in Paris, have continued to express concern.

Last month, a separate House committee called for the Justice Department and the International Olympic Committee to launch probes before the Olympics into the doping case involving the Chinese swimmers.

Four members of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, including top Republican John Moolenaar and top Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi, wrote to the institutions that China "inexplicably" had contributed nearly $2 million more than required to WADA programs.