Where's the beef? Olympic athletes are playing it safe
By Li Qian |
April 19, 2012, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
China's world champion hurdler Liu Xiang hasn't eaten pork for years to avoid testing positive for banned substances at athletic events.
Now it has been revealed that almost 200 swimmers training in Beijing for the London Olympics haven't eaten meat for the past 40 days because of reports of clenbuterol, or lean meat powder, being illegally added to pork, beef and mutton.
Instead, protein powder and fish is making up for the lack of protein in their diet. During the Spring Festival the swimmers even celebrated by eating vegetable dumplings instead of the traditional pork variety, the Yangtze Evening News reported yesterday.
In preparation for the Olympics, which begin on July 27, China's General Administration of Sports issued a ruling in January that prohibited athletes from eating pork, beef and mutton in restaurants.
The administration also ordered training bases not to purchase meat from unidentified sources.
Even produce from some long-time suppliers had tested for high levels of lean meat powder because they didn't breed their own animals, Yang Hongbo, an official with the Jiangsu Province Sports Bureau, told the newspaper.
"We now have to seal the meat in the fridges and send three samples to the National Anti-doping Center to do tests to get approval for cooking," Yang said, adding that the doors to the bureau's kitchen had been fitted with fingerprint locks so that only authorized personnel could enter.
The efforts are all aimed at making sure China's athletes don't, through no fault of their own, fall foul of the International Olympic Committee's ban on performance-enhancing drugs.
Clenbuterol, which is banned from use in food production and is on the IOC's banned list, produces leaner pork but can cause nausea, dizziness, headaches and heart palpitations in humans.
Tong Wen, who won a judo gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, tested positive for clenbuterol in 2010 and was banned for two years.
However, she was cleared after it was found she had eaten tainted pork chops.
To avoid similar incidents, the national gymnastics team has a strict set of rules. "Team members are only allowed to have meals in the canteen inside the training base. We will check their rooms from time to time to ensure they don't order from the outside restaurants," a team official told Xinhua news agency.
The Chinese marathon team also took extraordinary steps to ensure their food is safe.
Wang Bin, the team's coach, told Xinhua the team had raised its own chickens in Lijiang in southwest China's Yunnan Province to eliminate the possibility of illegal food additives being found if the runners were tested for drugs.
The team also bought fish and yak meat from areas where it was confident that no additives were being used.
China's athletes may not have to go to such extreme measures in the future.
State-owned China National Cereals, Oils, and Foodstuffs Corp has promised to supply the Chinese Olympics Committee with safe meat between 2012 and 2015, the committee said on its website.
Prosecutors approved the arrest of 2,012 people for making or selling poisonous food or counterfeit drugs and some 202 government officials were punished for their part in cases involving lean meat powder and artificial beef last year.
The problems with Chinese food are not confined to its own country.
Last April, Germany's sports authorities warned of the risk of eating Chinese and Mexican food. And in France, anti-doping authorities also told athletes not to eat meat that had come from China, the newspaper reported.
Now it has been revealed that almost 200 swimmers training in Beijing for the London Olympics haven't eaten meat for the past 40 days because of reports of clenbuterol, or lean meat powder, being illegally added to pork, beef and mutton.
Instead, protein powder and fish is making up for the lack of protein in their diet. During the Spring Festival the swimmers even celebrated by eating vegetable dumplings instead of the traditional pork variety, the Yangtze Evening News reported yesterday.
In preparation for the Olympics, which begin on July 27, China's General Administration of Sports issued a ruling in January that prohibited athletes from eating pork, beef and mutton in restaurants.
The administration also ordered training bases not to purchase meat from unidentified sources.
Even produce from some long-time suppliers had tested for high levels of lean meat powder because they didn't breed their own animals, Yang Hongbo, an official with the Jiangsu Province Sports Bureau, told the newspaper.
"We now have to seal the meat in the fridges and send three samples to the National Anti-doping Center to do tests to get approval for cooking," Yang said, adding that the doors to the bureau's kitchen had been fitted with fingerprint locks so that only authorized personnel could enter.
The efforts are all aimed at making sure China's athletes don't, through no fault of their own, fall foul of the International Olympic Committee's ban on performance-enhancing drugs.
Clenbuterol, which is banned from use in food production and is on the IOC's banned list, produces leaner pork but can cause nausea, dizziness, headaches and heart palpitations in humans.
Tong Wen, who won a judo gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, tested positive for clenbuterol in 2010 and was banned for two years.
However, she was cleared after it was found she had eaten tainted pork chops.
To avoid similar incidents, the national gymnastics team has a strict set of rules. "Team members are only allowed to have meals in the canteen inside the training base. We will check their rooms from time to time to ensure they don't order from the outside restaurants," a team official told Xinhua news agency.
The Chinese marathon team also took extraordinary steps to ensure their food is safe.
Wang Bin, the team's coach, told Xinhua the team had raised its own chickens in Lijiang in southwest China's Yunnan Province to eliminate the possibility of illegal food additives being found if the runners were tested for drugs.
The team also bought fish and yak meat from areas where it was confident that no additives were being used.
China's athletes may not have to go to such extreme measures in the future.
State-owned China National Cereals, Oils, and Foodstuffs Corp has promised to supply the Chinese Olympics Committee with safe meat between 2012 and 2015, the committee said on its website.
Prosecutors approved the arrest of 2,012 people for making or selling poisonous food or counterfeit drugs and some 202 government officials were punished for their part in cases involving lean meat powder and artificial beef last year.
The problems with Chinese food are not confined to its own country.
Last April, Germany's sports authorities warned of the risk of eating Chinese and Mexican food. And in France, anti-doping authorities also told athletes not to eat meat that had come from China, the newspaper reported.
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