{"id":413855,"date":"2024-07-25T21:51:09","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T21:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=413855"},"modified":"2024-07-25T23:06:43","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T23:06:43","slug":"why-this-aussie-champ-could-boycott-paris-podium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=413855","title":{"rendered":"Why this Aussie champ could boycott Paris podium"},"content":{"rendered":"

PARIS:<\/strong> Australian breaststroke champion Zac Stubblety-Cook has declared the anti-doping system "failed" as he prepares to square off in Paris<\/a> with Qin Haiyang, one of the 23 Chinese swimmers engulfed in the lingering doping controversy.<\/p>\n

Stubblety-Cook also indicated he may refuse to step on the podium at the Olympics<\/a>, in the event of Qin winning gold and himself collecting a minor medal, in a stand that would be reminiscent of Mack Horton's protest against Chinese doper Sun Yang in 2019.<\/p>\n

Qin was one of the 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive to a performance-enhancing drug<\/a> called trimetazidine\ufeff several months out from the Tokyo Games in 2021, before being cleared to compete at the Olympics by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> LA Olympics in jeopardy over China doping case<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Medal hope treated for injury after Teahupo'o wipeout<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Matildas to kick off Olympic campaign with tough clash<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

At last year's world championships in Fukuoka, Qin won gold in the 200m breaststroke and broke Stubblety-Cook's world record. The Australian was left with silver.<\/p>\n

\"Zac<\/p>\n

Stubblety-Cook spoke to media in Paris on Thursday, less than a week out from facing Qin in the pool.<\/p>\n

"I absolutely believe in clean sport and I hope that this is a clean Games," Stubblety-Cook said.<\/p>\n

"It's obviously disappointing to hear that news and hear about the pre-Tokyo 23 athletes testing positive, some multiple times, and for me racing someone that was one of those athletes and finding out he was one of those athletes was disappointing.<\/p>\n

"I think it's less about what country they came from and more about the system and how ultimately it feels like it's failed. That's the truth\ufeff.<\/p>\n

"Obviously I can have all the opinions, but I am now focused on what I can control going into these Games and being a clean athlete … and hoping that my competitors are doing the same."<\/p>\n

Watch every moment, every medal of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 live and free on Channel 9 and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. Plus, every event streaming ad free, live and on demand with 4K on<\/strong><\/em> Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

At the 2019 world championships in South Korea, Australia's Horton refused to share the podium with China's Sun, who had served a three-month doping suspension in 2014.\ufeff Sun won gold in the 400m freestyle and Horton finished second.<\/p>\n

\"Qin<\/p>\n

Stubblety-Cook hinted at rule 50 of the\ufeff International Olympic Committee (IOC) charter, which states: "No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas".<\/p>\n

"Everyone probably knows of rule 50 here and the repercussions that happen with that," Stubblety-Cook said.<\/p>\n

Despite that, the Brisbane product noted he would "make a decision probably on the day".<\/p>\n

"But at the end of the day, I'm a clean athlete and I'm trying to abide by those rules and I \ufeffjust hope my competitors do the same," he added.<\/p>\n

Qin will contest both the 100m and 200m breaststroke events in Paris, but Stubblety-Cook will only swim the 200m.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Bronte Campbell will become just the fourth female Australian swimmer to have contested four Olympic Games, joining her sister Cate, backstroke champion Emily Seebohm and breaststroke great Leisel Jones.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffWhile that news [of the China drugs scandal] when it came out was incredibly disappointing and I think incredibly frustrating, there's nothing we can do about it two days before an Olympic Games," Campbell told media in Paris on Thursday.<\/p>\n

"What we can control is the next two days, how we spend our time and then once we start racing how that goes.<\/p>\n

"So … it's not the time to spend any thought or energy on it [the drugs controversy]. It's parked in the back of the brain\ufeff."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PARIS: Australian breaststroke champion Zac Stubblety-Cook has declared the anti-doping system "failed" as he prepares to square off in Paris with Qin Haiyang, one of […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":413857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413855"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=413855"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":413860,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413855\/revisions\/413860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/413857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=413855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=413855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=413855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}