The Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee yesterday published a list of 11 Taiwanese athletes who would be temporarily banned from participating in world sports events after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs.
In a letter dated March 6, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) asked the committee to make public the list of contravening athletes and the duration of their ban before Friday next week.
Two-time weightlifting champion Hsu Shu-ching (許淑淨) was listed among the offenders, while Lin Tsu-chi (林子琦), already banned for testing positive during the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics, is under a six-year ban for a repeat offense.
Photo: Hsu Cho-hsun, Taipei Times
Others on the list are Chen Pin-sheng (陳品升), Yang Fu-chieh (楊富傑), Yeh Mu-han (葉慕涵) and Chen Kung-wen (陳孔文) in the bodybuilding category, as well as Chen Shih-hao (陳士豪), Chang Yu-hsi (張有錫), Chiang Kai-chieh (江凱傑) and Huang Lung-hsing (黃龍興) in the powerlifting category.
Wu Chou-wei (吳宙威), a hammer thrower, is also on the list.
While former Taekwondo athlete Chuang Chia-chia (莊佳佳), the director of the Taoyuan Department of Sports, is not on the list, allegations emerged yesterday that she has been banned from participating in sports events for failing to report to the WADA about her whereabouts in 2017.
Chuang confirmed the allegations, saying a petition has been filed, but added that the ban was not related to the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
Sports Administration Director-General Kao Chin-hsung (高俊雄) said that the agency would convene a meeting within two weeks to determine whether it would demand that Hsu return her salary as a coach at the National Sports Training Center in Kaohsiung during the time she was banned, which began in January last year.
Hsu has already resigned as a center coach.
Pundits have said that Hsu’s defense of “accidental ingestion” of the drug as weak, as both she and Lin tested positive for the same substance.
The agency will also re-evaluate the suitability of coach Tsai Wen-yee (蔡溫義), Kao said.
Kao pledged that a final decision would be made prior to April 15 on whether Tsai would be allowed to stay on as a coach.
The agency is also mulling whether to establish a separate drug-testing unit, which is currently handled by the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee, he said, adding that a review of extant regulations would be required.
The agency is focused foremost on the protection of athletes’ right to participate in sports events, but this focus must be tempered by observation of international regulations, Kao said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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