The revelation that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for a banned drug seven months before the Tokyo Olympics but were secretly cleared and allowed to continue competing has exposed a bitter and at times deeply personal rift inside the sport, and brought new criticism of the global authority that oversees drug-testing.

23名中国游泳运动员在东京奥运会7个月前被查出一种违禁药物检测结果为阳性，但却被秘密放行，获准继续参赛。该事件暴露了这项运动内部存在着严酷的争斗，时常发展成个人恩怨，并引发了对监管药物检测的全球权威机构的新批评。

A New York Times investigation uncovered previously unreported details of the 2021 episode, in which a contingent of Chinese swimmers, including nearly half of the team that China sent to the Tokyo Games, tested positive for a banned prescription heart medicine that can help athletes increase stamina and reduce recovery times.

《纽约时报》的一项调查揭露了此前未曾报道的2021年事件的细节，一组中国游泳运动员（包括中国派往东京奥运会的近一半运动员）在对一种被禁止的心脏处方药物的检测中结果为阳性，这种药物可以帮助运动员增强耐力，缩短恢复时间。

Within hours, the disclosure of an incident that had been a secret for more than three years had drawn strong reactions from athletes, coaches and others in the fight to keep drugs out of elite sports.

在几个小时内，这件隐瞒了三年多、现被披露的事件在运动员、教练和其他致力于将禁药排除在精英体育项目之外的人士中激起了强烈反应。

An American Olympian who took home a silver medal from Tokyo said she felt her team had been “cheated” in a race won by China. A British gold medalist called for a lifetime ban for the swimmers involved. The sports minister in Germany, where a documentary on the case was broadcast Sunday, demanded an investigation. And a simmering feud between officials at the World Anti-Doping Agency, the global regulator known as WADA, and their U.S. counterparts burst into the open in a flurry of caustic statements and legal threats.

一位在东京奥运会上获得银牌的美国选手表示，她觉得自己的队伍在由中国赢得的比赛中受到了“欺骗”。一位英国金牌得主呼吁对涉事游泳运动员进行终身禁赛。德国体育部长要求对此展开调查。周日，一部有关此案的纪录片在德国播出。全球监管机构世界反兴奋剂组织的官员与美国官员之间酝酿已久的不和公开化，双方发表了一系列尖刻的声明，并发出法律威胁。

“Any time there’s a situation where positive tests aren’t clearly identified and gone through a proper process and protocol, it allows for doubt to creep into athletes’ minds who are competing clean,” said Greg Meehan, the Stanford University coach who led the U.S. women’s team at the Tokyo Games. “When they’re going into competitions, you can’t help but think, ‘Am I competing in a clean event?’”

“任何时候，如果检测呈阳性的情况没有得到明确认定，也没有经过适当的程序和程序，就会让那些清白参赛的运动员产生怀疑，”曾在东京奥运会上率领美国女队参赛的斯坦福大学教练格雷格·米汉说。“他们参加比赛时不禁会想，‘我参加的是一个干净的项目吗？’”

The fallout comes less than 100 days before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. That has created uncomfortable headlines both for the sport but also for the Games themselves, which depend on global antidoping regulators to ensure fair play and the integrity of the medals awarded — which can validate years of training, define athletes’ careers and confer pride on a nation.

此次事件发生在距离巴黎奥运会开幕不到100天的时候。这不仅给这项运动，也为奥运会本身带来了令人不安的新闻报道。奥运会依靠全球反兴奋剂监管机构来确保公平竞赛和奖牌的公正性——奖牌可以证明多年的训练成果，可以定义运动员的职业生涯，也可以给一个国家带来自豪感。

China’s antidoping agency, known as Chinada, acknowledged the positive tests in a response to questions last week but said the swimmers had ingested the banned substance unwittingly and in tiny amounts, and that no action against them was warranted. WADA, saying it had no “credible evidence” to challenge China’s version of events, said it had declined to impose suspensions, disqualifications or even make any public announcement that they had tested positive.

中国反兴奋剂中心上周在回答问题时承认检测结果呈阳性，但表示这些游泳运动员是在不知情的情况下摄入了少量违禁物质，没有必要对他们采取行动。世界反兴奋剂组织表示，没有“可信的证据”来质疑中国对该事件的说法，并表示拒绝对这些运动员实施禁赛和取消参赛资格的处罚，甚至拒绝公开宣布阳性检测结果。

In many ways, the fight over the Chinese positives is one about process. In all but the rarest circumstances, any athlete who tests positive for a powerful banned drug like the one in question, trimetazidine, is subject to at least a provisional suspension while an investigation takes place. There is no evidence that happened in the case of the Chinese athletes.

在很多方面，围绕中国兴奋剂阳性事件的争论是关于程序的。除极少数情况外，任何运动员如果被检测出服用了本次事件中曲美他嗪这样的强效禁药，都会在调查期间至少被暂时禁赛。没有证据表明中国运动员有过这种情况。

WADA and Chinada strongly disputed any assertion they had covered up the positive tests, saying they had abided by all applicable rules in investigating them. The director of WADA’s intelligence and investigations unit, Günter Younger, said it had “diligently investigated every lead and line of inquiry in this matter.”

世界反兴奋剂组织和中国反兴奋剂中心强烈否认它们掩盖阳性检测结果的说法，称它们在调查中遵守了所有适用的规则。世界反兴奋剂组织情报和调查部门主管金特·扬格表示，该机构“认真调查了与此事有关的每一条线索和调查方向”。

“The data held by us clearly showed that there had been no attempt to hide the positive tests as they had been reported in the usual way by the Chinese authorities,” he said.

“我们掌握的数据清楚地表明，没有人试图隐瞒阳性检测结果，因为它们是中国官方以通常的方式上报的，”他说。

For those personally affected, though, the revelation was far more personal.

然而，对于那些受到个人影响的人来说，这一事件的披露更为个人化。

The Times identified five events at the Tokyo Games in which Chinese swimmers who had tested positive for a banned substance won medals, including three golds.

《纽约时报》发现，在东京奥运会的五个项目中，禁药检测结果呈阳性的中国游泳运动员获得了奖牌，其中包括三枚金牌。

Paige Madden, a member of the U.S. 4x200 freestyle relay team that finished second to China with a time that was faster than the previous world record, said in a text message to The New York Times she hoped that the handling of the doping case would be investigated and a reallocation of medals considered.

美国4×200自由泳接力队成员佩吉·马登在发给《纽约时报》的短信中说，她希望对兴奋剂事件的处理进行调查，并考虑重新分配奖牌。马登以打破之前的世界纪录的成绩获得了亚军。

美国队在东京自由泳接力决赛中打破了世界纪录，但最终排名第二，落后于中国队。

“We had to applaud China’s efforts that day,” she said of being beaten by a faster team. “Today however, I feel that Team USA was cheated. We didn’t get to celebrate our world record, and we didn’t get our team moment to be on the top of the podium to watch our flag and sing the national anthem.”

“我们那天为中国队的努力鼓掌，”她在谈到被一支速度更快的队伍击败时说。“然而今天，我觉得美国队被骗了。我们没有机会庆祝我们创造的世界纪录，也没有机会享受我们的团队时刻，站在领奖台上看着我们的国旗唱国歌。”

In posts on X, the British Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty, a three-time gold medalist, criticized an uneven application of a system known as strict liability, a bedrock of international doping rules in which athletes are deemed responsible for any banned substance found in their body, irrespective how it got there, making the bar to avoid consequences extremely high. Peaty’s Olympic teammate James Guy, who won two golds from Tokyo, went further, writing: “Ban them all and never compete again.”

曾三次获得奥运金牌的英国游泳运动员亚当·皮蒂在X上发帖，批评了严格责任制度的应用不够平衡。严格责任制度是国际兴奋剂规则的基础，根据该规则，运动员要对自己体内发现的任何违禁物质负责，无论这些物质如何进入体内，要想规避后果需要满足极严苛的条件。皮蒂的奥运队友詹姆斯·盖伊更进一步，他写道：“永远禁止他们所有人参赛。”他在东京奥运会上获得了两枚金牌。

The more ugly fight, though, was among the world’s leading antidoping officials.

然而，更丑陋的斗争发生在世界主要反兴奋剂官员之间。

Late Saturday, WADA threatened legal action against the chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, Travis T. Tygart, in an unusually personal news release that accused him of “undermining WADA’s work to protect clean sport around the world.”

周六晚些时候，世界反兴奋剂组织威胁要对美国反兴奋剂机构首席执行官特拉维斯·泰加特采取法律行动，并在一份不同寻常的个人新闻稿中指责泰加特“破坏了世界反兴奋剂组织保护全球干净体育运动的工作”。

Mr. Tygart, who had publicly criticized the handling of the China case, quickly fired back. “It is disappointing to see WADA stoop to threats and scare tactics when confronted with a blatant violation of the rules governing antidoping,” he said. “When you blow away their rhetoric, the facts remain as have been reported: WADA failed to provisionally suspend the athletes, disqualify results, and publicly disclose the positives. These are egregious failures.”

曾公开批评中国一案处理方式的泰加特迅速予以回击。“看到世界反兴奋剂组织在面对公然违背反兴奋剂规定的行为时屈服于威胁和恐吓战术，这令人失望，”他说。“抛开他们的花言花语，事实仍然如报道所述：世界反兴奋剂组织未能暂时停赛，取消成绩，并公开披露阳性结果。这些都是令人震惊的失败。”

The back and forth brought a longstanding feud between world antidoping officials and their American counterparts into public view. In an interview in March, WADA’s director general, Olivier Niggli, had previously expressed annoyance with the U.S. antidoping agency, and Mr. Tygart.

这样的往来让世界反兴奋剂官员和美国反兴奋剂官员之间的长期不和进入了公众视野。世界反兴奋剂组织总干事奥利维尔·尼格利在今年3月接受采访时曾表达过对美国反兴奋剂机构和泰加特的不满。

“Everything we do they criticize,” Mr. Niggli said.

“我们做的每件事他们都批评，”尼格利说。

WADA said it had referred Mr. Tygart’s most recent comments to its legal department. But WADA and the Chinese antidoping agency also threatened legal action against news media outlets who reported information they characterized as “misleading.”

世界反兴奋剂组织表示，已将泰加特最近的言论提交给其法律部门。但世界反兴奋剂组织和中国反兴奋剂中心也威胁要对报道被他们称为“误导性”信息的新闻媒体采取法律行动。

It is unclear, though, what can or will happen next. WADA is standing by its handling of the Chinese swimmers’ positive tests. World Aquatics, the organization that governs swimming internationally, told The Times that it believes the positive tests were handled “diligently and professionally, and in accordance with all applicable antidoping regulations.”

不过，接下来会发生什么，目前还不清楚。世界反兴奋剂组织坚持其对中国游泳运动员药检阳性结果的处理。管理国际游泳运动的世界游泳联合会对时报表示，他们相信这些阳性检测结果得到了“认真、专业的处理，并符合所有适用的反兴奋剂规定”。

And on Sunday, China’s best swimmers contested the third day of the country’s Olympic trials. Some of the swimmers identified for testing positive in 2021 will again be front and center, including Zhang Yufei, who won four Olympic medals at the Tokyo Games, including two golds.

周日，中国最好的游泳运动员参加了第三天的奥运选拔赛。一些在2021年检测结果呈阳性的游泳运动员将再次成为焦点，其中包括在东京奥运会上获得四枚奥运奖牌——包括两枚金牌——的张雨霏。