Australian swimmers to use China doping case as ‘fuel’ for Paris

MELBOURNE: China's doping case will be an extra source of motivation for Australia's swimmers at the Paris Olympics, according to rising freestyle specialist Flynn Southam.

Southam, part of the world championship-winning 100 metres freestyle relay team in Fukuoka last year, said his team mates had discussed revelations that 23 Chinese swimmers had failed drug tests for a banned substance before the Tokyo Games.

"Yeah, there were a few things going around, mainly just athletes talking with other athletes and comparing notes on how it made us feel," Southam said in comments published by News Corp media on Monday.

"I guess it is fuel to the fire, but at the same time we are not going to get caught up in the narratives of anyone else. "We are just there to do our job and our job is to do the best we can and capitalise on the support we get from the Australian public."

The 23 swimmers were cleared before Tokyo by a Chinese investigation which said they were inadvertently exposed to the drug trimetazidine, a heart medication, through contamination.