Michael Phelps sends clear message to Paris officials amid Olympic 'cheating' controversy
Gerrard Kaonga
Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/Nathan Howard/Ian MacNicol
Swimming legend Michael Phelps isn’t playing around when it comes to cheating in swimming and has a no-nonsense resolution to deal with the ongoing controversy.
The Paris Olympics has seen world records and personal records absolutely smashed but some victories haven't resulted in praise from everyone.
When it comes to swimming in this year’s Olympics, there have been a fair few people who haven’t been happy with China’s success.
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Nine Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned substance ahead of the Tokyo Olympics have won medals in this year’s events.
There was a total of 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine prior to the Tokyo Olympics, according to an investigation by the New York Times.
However, the swimmers were eventually cleared to compete with the belief being they had unknowingly ingested the drug via contaminated food.
Despite this, their success hasn’t sat well with some of their competitors as British swimmer Adam Peaty has been very vocal about his frustrations.
He called on Olympic officials to 'do their job' to ensure absolutely no cheating of any kind was taking place and reiterated that his competitors had previously tested positive for banned substances.
Speaking to the press on Monday, Phelps, who has a total of 28 Olympic medals himself, also weighed in on the controversy.
He said: “If you test positive, you should never be allowed to come back and compete again, cut and dry. I believe one and done.
“It does break my heart to see people put hard effort into four straight years to prepare for an Olympic Games, then to have it taken away from them by somebody who is cheating.
“It’s not right. I stand for that and I will always stand for that.”
Due to his own meteoric success in the Olympics, Phelps said he underwent extra testing to eliminate any doubt surrounding his own victories.
He added: “If everybody is not going through that same testing, I have a serious problem because it means the level of sport is not fair and it’s not even.”
“If you’re taking that risk, then you don’t belong in here.”
Phelps even had a firm message to those that have cheated and insisted they had no place in the Olympics.
“Go ahead and go to the cheater games. Keep the Olympics about integrity.”
UNILAD has contacted the Chinese Olympic Committee for comment.