Swimming hope banned for life for doping

The Chinese Swimming Association confirmed late last week that Ouyang Kunpeng, China's top backstroke swimmer, has been banned for life after testing positive for steroids.

Ouyang failed a routine out-of-competition random urine test on May 1, the Telegraph reported. He tested positive for the drug clebuterol, which is widely used in China's pig farms. Ouyang had claimed that tainted meat at a barbecue led to the positive result.

An unidentified official from the National Sports Administration has confirmed that an investigation on whether Ouyang might have taken the drug accidentally was underway.

“There is a possibility that he might taken in an excessive amount of such a substance from his food,” the paper quoted him as saying. “We know this substance is found in animal feed.”

However, the official said that proof that Ouyang had taken the drug by accident will not change the swimmer's punishment – a reflection, the Telegraph said, of China's seriousness about doping.