Return of the tainted Chinese swimmers: A staggering 23 tested positive before the last Olympics - now 11 are BACK after being cleared, including the biggest threat to Adam Peaty

Even the boss can’t promise it will be clean. ‘You will never eliminate doping from the sporting landscape,’ declared World Anti-Doping Agency president Witold Banka on the eve of Paris 2024’s opening ceremony. ‘You will always find someone who wants to cheat.’

Banka may well have had a point, but he could also be forgiven for having his mind elsewhere. In Paris, a war has broken out amid a build-up to an Olympic Games like no other.

At the heart of this flare-up is the scandal revealed in April that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for a banned drug, trimetazidine, months before the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

The group, which collected three golds and, shockingly, of which 11 will compete in Paris — including Qin Haiyang, the biggest threat to Great Britain’s Adam Peaty winning a third consecutive gold medal in the men’s 100m breaststroke — avoided sanction when it was accepted the tests were down to environmental contamination via a hotel kitchen.

At an extraordinary press conference on Thursday, World Anti-Doping Agency chiefs were forced to defend themselves. At one point, a German reporter told them their investigation was inadequate. He pointed out that Chinese athletes had not been interviewed outside of China and that they had not checked the latest revelations by German broadcaster ARD, which suggested the group in question were not staying at the same hotel.

This week, in a development that would have been staggering in most other sports, it emerged the International Olympic Committee had threatened to take the 2034 Winter Games away from Salt Lake City should the FBI not drop their investigation into the alleged cover-up of doping by the Chinese swimmers.

Olympic chiefs confirmed on Wednesday that the Utah city would host the event, but warned they would pull the plug ‘if World Anti-Doping is not fully respected or if the application of the Anti-Doping Code is hindered or undermined’. Indeed, a clause was added to the contract, just to make it clear, demanding local organisers attempt to end the probe or risk losing the Games.

‘It was the only way we could guarantee we would get the Games,’ said Utah governor Spencer Cox. ‘They can withdraw the Games from us.’

The threat to remove the Winter Games from Salt Lake City is seen as a response to the 2020 Rodchenkov Act — passed in the US following the Russian doping scandal at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games — which allows American prosecutors to bring criminal charges against those from anywhere else in the world who have been involved in doping in international events where American athletes compete.

No wonder the Americans are angry. Travis Tygart, head of the US Anti-Doping Agency, was quick to respond, saying it was ‘shocking to see threats in an apparent effort to silence those seeking answers to what are now known as facts’. For good measure, he described the World Anti-Doping Agency as a ‘lapdog’. ‘Clean athletes have little chance,’ Tygart added.

World Anti-Doping chiefs stuck to their script on Thursday. No evidence was found that the official conclusion regarding the Chinese swimmers’ tests was not the likeliest. ‘There’s a difference between evidence and hearsay,’ said director general Olivier Niggli. ‘We never said we wouldn’t reopen or look at new evidence if there is anything. We have been in contact with ARD more than one time in last three weeks.’

His remarks prompted an incredulous response from ARD’s reporter in the room, who accused Niggli of ‘lies’.

Banka was asked about Tygart’s ‘lapdog’ comment and said: ‘Unprofessional. I am speechless.’ He also took a swipe at the Rodchenkov Act, saying it would go to a compliance review committee next month, ‘to check if this legislation is in alignment with our world anti-doping code’. Should they find it is not, it could lead to a host of measures against the US, including losing the right to host.

There is, however, an important party lurking in the background in the shape of US broadcaster NBC — who hold the biggest, most lucrative Olympic TV deal.

Over what felt like a 47-minute slanging match on Thursday, an Australian reporter told the panel they were ‘continually getting belted’, adding: ‘This debate has been going on for a long time and you’re not winning it’. The panel was also asked if they were ‘scared of China’.

There was then the added colour of two journalists from Chinese media, who appeared to be reading from a script when they complained about the high levels of testing for Chinese swimmers and asked why Americans only took urine tests a month before the competition started. They also asked what would be done about the fact some Chinese minors were named by the leaks.

The dust had barely settled when it was time for another press conference. This time the attack came from American seven-time gold medallist Caeleb Dressel, who piled in at a World Aquatics event ahead of the swimming that starts on Saturday.

Asked if he had faith in the authorities, he said: ‘No. I don’t think they have given enough evidence to support how this case was handled.’

Dressel’s comments echoed those of compatriot Katie Ledecky, herself a seven-time Olympic swimming champion, who had said athletes ‘want transparency’.

‘They want further answers to the questions that remain,’ she added. ‘We want to see some change for the future so you don’t have to ask us that question.’

It is not just the Americans. Zac Stubblety-Cook, the Australian Olympic 200 metres breaststroke champion who lost his world record to Qin, was asked for his view on the probe.

‘It feels like it’s failed,’ he said. ‘I absolutely believe in clean sport and I hope this is a clean Games. It’s disappointing to hear about the positive tests of 23 athletes; in some cases multiple positives. Finding out you are racing someone who was one of those athletes is disappointing.’

The 25-year-old indicated he may refuse to step on the podium if Qin wins gold and Stubblety-Cook earns silver or bronze.

Not that the only questions surround Chinese swimmers. Britain’s taekwondo champion Jade Jones has been controversially cleared to compete despite refusing to provide a urine sample to drug testers in December.

Jones, who provided a negative test eight hours later, was not punished after it was accepted she was suffering from ‘a loss of cognitive capacity’ at the time.

On the track, Australia’s Peter Bol will run in the 800m after being cleared by the country’s sporting watchdog of blood doping six months after failing a drug test.

‘Our role is not to give the stamp of credibility to every single athlete,’ said Banka.

When the Games begin in earnest on Saturday, such credibility may be in short supply.