The revelation that Tang Muhan, a member of China’s world-beating women’s 4X200m relay team, secretly tested positive to a banned steroid nearly two years ago is as welcome as a Polly Waffle in La Défense Arena pool.

But, if you pause to consider without prejudgment the facts we know, this latest scandal should bolster rather than weaken athlete confidence in the anti-doping system.

Tang Muhan (arms raised) celebrates with her relay teammates after winning gold at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.Credit: Al Bello

There is certainly a problem here.

Tang’s positive test for metandienone, recorded within a few months of three other Chinese athletes from as many sports, was not publicly declared by China’s anti-doping agency (CHINADA) or its global regulator, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), until it was dug up this week by another fine piece of investigative reporting by The New York Times.

The way that anti-doping is supposed to work, Tang’s failed drug test and the fact she served a provisional, year-long suspension while CHINADA investigated her case should have been publicly declared once a finding was made.

For reasons that neither CHINADA nor WADA have adequately explained, a powerful sporting nation with a history of systemic doping is not meeting the reporting requirements of the World Anti-Doping Code.

We saw it in the way CHINADA handled the positive tests to Trimetazidine by 23 national level swimmers in late 2020 and early 2021 and again, we can see it here.

Unless national anti-doping agencies provide transparency, you can’t expect athletes to trust them.

Beyond this failing, CHINADA has approached the........

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