Doping in sports, an issue the Philippines will make sure won’t happen while hosting the subcontinental Southeast Asian Games late this year, resurfaced on Sunday at the 2019 World Aquatic Championships in South Korea.
At the center of the drama were Chinese swimming star Sun Yang and Australian Olympic swimming champion Mack Horton, who refueled the feud with his nemesis by refusing to share the podium with him.
The 23-year old Horton, gold medalist in the 400-meter freestyle in the 2016 Olympics, came second this time to Sun, the same guy he beat in the same event in the Rio de Janeiro Games and snubbed during the medal ceremony.
Horton previously called Sun, 27, a “drug cheat” after the Chinese swimmer received a three-month suspension when he tested positive for a banned substance in violation of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) code in 2014. Sun is also awaiting a hearing at the court of arbitration for sports for refusing to give a urine sample at a drug test.
Horton’s actions drew a strong rebuke from Chinese state media that quoted Sun: “You could choose not to respect me, but you must respect China.”
A day after the incident, organizers of the worlds wrote a warning letter to Australian and his sport’s national governing body.
“While Fina (International Federation for Aquatics) respects the principle of freedom of speech, it has to be conducted in the right context,” the organizers said.
Almost immediately, Leigh Russell CEO of Swimming Australia came to his swimmer’s defense. Russell said: “Swimming Australia respects the position Mack Horton took during the medal ceremony and understands his sense of frustration.”
“Experience and history prove that the vigilance against doping is working,” says William Ramirez, chair of the government’s Philippine Sports Commission (PSC).
The PSC pays $17,000 (roughly P870,000) in yearly membership dues to Wada to monitor national athletes for banned substances in the course of their training and participation in individual and multisports events under the aegis of the international Olympic Committee (IOC).
Founded 19 years ago and headquartered in Montreal, Canada, WADA is a foundation initiated by the IOC to promote, coordinate and monitor the fight against drugs in sports.
Antidoping tests are conducted in earnest, from the Olympics, to the Asian Games and down to the inferior SEA Games to be held in Clark City, Metro Manila and other venues, from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11.
“We are taking a stand for clean sports. That is why antidoping activities are part of the medical services provided to our national pool of athletes,” said Ramirez, also the country’s chef de mission to the 30th SEA Games. “One of the PSC’s in-house doctors is the Southeast Asian doping coordinator.”