Chinese swimmer at center of doping controversy responds at Olympics: ‘I feel very misunderstood’

PARIS — Zhang Yufei sped to the top semifinal seed in the women’s 100-meter butterfly on Saturday, and then, on the first morning of swimming here at the Olympics, she stepped into an unfamiliar environment.

She had not faced the scrutiny of foreign journalists since the April revelation that she and 22 Chinese teammates had tested positive for a banned substance in 2021 and escaped punishment.

Neither she nor any other Chinese swimmer had publicly responded to the scandal, which has been the subject of suspicion and frustration among rivals entering the Games — but which has largely been censored and scrubbed from social media in China.

Here, though, Zhang chose to speak with a few reporters; and before long, a gaggle had crowded around, leaving Gretchen Walsh, the world record holder in the event, mostly ignored as she stood just several feet away.

Zhang was asked about doping. She tried to respond in English, but then called for a reporter who could translate; this was a subject too sensitive for a second language.

And then, she spoke for a minute and a half in Mandarin. She said that she and her teammates had been tested three to four times per week in the two months prior to these Paris Games (far more frequently than the norm). “I don't think there is a single athlete, Chinese or foreign, who would test positive for doping,” she said, according to translations from the New York Times and an automated service. “They would not want to destroy all the hard work they've put in over the years.”

“The Chinese government does not allow us to dope intentionally,” Zhang continued. Her answers fell in line with the explanations that anti-doping authorities and World Aquatics, the global governing body for swimming, have given or accepted all along: That the 23 positive tests were the result of contamination.

Swimmers from other countries have doubted that excuse. The April revelations, Australia’s Bronte Campbell said this week, were “incredibly disappointing and incredibly frustrating.” Australia’s Zac Stubblety-Cook said he felt like “the system [has] failed.” When asked about the possibility of a protest if the Chinese swimmer in his breaststroke race, Qin Haiyang, beats him and others to gold, he didn’t rule it out. “I will make a decision on the day,” he said.

Qin did not speak to foreign reporters after his preliminary heat on Saturday morning. Zhang, however, did, willingly, and detailed the effect that all this scrutiny has had on her.

“Before last year, before the report, I got along very well with friends from different countries,” she said. “Now, I come to the Olympic Games, I'm very worried that my good friends look at me differently — that they do not want to compete with me or watch my [races].”

She even said she was “worried that the French people think the Chinese do not deserve to stand at this stage.

“I feel very misunderstood,” she said.

She’ll race in the 100 butterfly semifinals Saturday night, then duel with two American medal contenders, Walsh and Torri Huske, in the final on Sunday.

No matter the result, she said she hoped that the public would treat her and teammates “objectively,” rather than through what she called — roughly, via a similar Mandarin phrase — “tinted glasses.”