Swimmers warn Olympics ‘are dirtier than ever’

Former Olympic swimmers Nikki Dryden and Alison Wagner have given details at the Web Summit of a new petition they have launched in an effort to clean up international athletics.

Wagner, who lost to Irish swimmer Michelle Smyth at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, referred to the “personal, financial, psychological” damage done to athletes who are beaten by doping competitors. Smyth was banned by swimming body FINA two years after those Olympics for tampering with a urine sample.

“I competed against multiple athletes using PEDs (performance-enhancing drugs), athletes who doped individually.