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Caeleb Dressel fears unfair competition at the 2024 Olympic Games

He seems to be preparing mentaly for the challenges he could face in the following days

Caeleb Dressel reacts after winning the Men's 100 butterfly finals...
Caeleb Dressel reacts after winning the Men's 100 butterfly finals Saturday, June 22, 2024, at the US Swimming Olympic Trials in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

American swimmer Caeleb Dressel, seven-time Olympic champion, expressed this Thursday his distrust in the cleanliness of swimming at the Paris Games following the positive tests of recently known Chinese swimmers.

The doubts expressed by Dressel add to those raised a day ago by Katie Ledecky, the other current figure in American swimming, and also those of the greatest giant of this sport, Michael Phelps, the top medal winner in the summer sporting event.

Swimming has been in shock since in April the New York Times and the German network ARD revealed that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive in 2021 for trimetazidine (TMZ), a heart medication banned seven years earlier.

The fear is also that there will not be any consequences

These athletes, some of whom won medals months later at the Tokyo Games, were not sanctioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which accepted Chinese explanations that the results were the product of food contamination during a concentration.

Eleven of those controversial Chinese swimmers will participate in the Paris Games competitions starting Saturday. When asked if he trusts that the authorities of this sport will guarantee equality in these Games, the American Dressel was categorical.

"The truth is no. I don't think they have given us enough evidence to them in how this case has been handled," said the Florida athlete, who has the mission of defending his 50m freestyle and 100m butterfly titles.

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