With a move mirroring the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, where Chinese swimmers were subjected to an intense frequency of doping tests, the athletes faced a harsher set of rules ahead of the World Aquatics Championships.
The Aquatics Integrity Unit revealed in a report that the Chinese swimmers took more anti-doping tests this year than anyone else ahead of the event in Singapore this month.
From January 1, Chinese swimmers had an average of 8.8 anti-doping tests versus those from the US, who were averaging 4.1 times, while the British were tested 2.2 times.
In total, the Aquatics Integrity Unit conducted 4,018 anti-doping tests on athletes participating in the Singapore event scheduled for July 11 to July 22.
China's swimming team has faced strict monitoring since revelations in April 2024 that 23 swimmers had tested positive for a banned heart medication in 2021 but were permitted to compete in the Tokyo Olympics that year.
At the time, the World Anti-Doping Agency accepted the findings of a Chinese investigation that the results were due to contamination from a hotel kitchen.
Furthermore, the Integrity Unit shared that the testing will remain in force until the end of the event, with 830 samples to be collected during 24 days of competition.
Notably, China's male freestyle sprinter Wang Haoyu, 19, was tested 13 times, while Qin Haiyang, 26, the 200-meter breaststroke world record holder, was tested 12 times.
