Drugs Cost China Asian Games Medals

BEIJING -- "More, faster, better, cheaper."


It might have been the slogan for the 1994 Chinese swim team.


In both the Great Leap Forward of the 1950s and the great splash forward of the '90s, the initial appearance of success was too good to be true.


Last week Japanese drug testers, who had taken urine samples at the Asian Games in Hiroshima in early October, revealed that 11 Chinese athletes tested positive for drugs, including seven top Chinese swimmers. Among them were swimming sensation Lu Bin, who won four gold and two silver medals at the Hiroshima games, and world champion swimmer Yang Aihua, now banned for two years. In all, China will be stripped of 22 medals it won at the Asian games.


In addition, the seven Chinese swimmers probably face a two-year ban from international competition. Cornel Marculescu, director of the international swimming federation in Lausanne, Switzerland, said he was awaiting the official report on the doping cases from the Olympic Council of Asia to see if it confirms that the swimmers tested positive for the performance-enhancing substance dehydrotestosterone.


The drug scandal casts doubt on dozens of other distinctions won this year by top Chinese athletes, including the women's swim team's performance at the world championships, where they smashed five world records and collected 12 of 16 gold medals.


The impact of the drug scandal in China is huge. The reaction here to the news has been a cycle of denial, recrimination and righteous indignation.


"China's position against doping is consistent and known to all," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Chen Jian. "The excellent performance of Chinese athletes reflects their long-term and scientific training. Their performances cannot be totally negated."


Last week the Chinese Olympic Committee said it was "shocked" to discover that some of its world champion swimmers had a little extra kick in their juice. The committee warned that the offending athletes would be "severely punished," though it was not clear what that would mean.


However even after the Chinese Olympic Committee's admission that the athletes did indeed take drugs, a key question still lingers: Who is responsible? Was this a case comparable to those in the former East Germany, where taking drugs to enhance athletic prowess was part of a national campaign? The use of former East German coaches by China's swimming team, and the incredible number of athletes who tested positive at just one event, certainly raises suspicions among other national teams.


The question of responsibility in China has always been a tricky one.


Here, China's political history may be applicable. In the Great Leap Forward, Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung set overall policy goals, and everyone from central planners to peasants tried to fill his unrealistic expectations -- even if that mean wild exaggeration.


Now, as then, very few people are talking about a sense of responsibility for misguided or mislaid plans. But without a clearer sense of responsibility -- both on the part of the country's leaders and on the part of ordinary individuals who carry out their orders -- China is destined to more scandals in sports, finance and politics.