U.S. Swimmers Unnerved by Latest Chinese Doping Case Ahead of Paris Olympics

U.S. Swimmers Unnerved by Latest Chinese Doping Case Ahead of Paris Olympics

As the world abruptly shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020, concerns of a canceled Tokyo Olympics were assuaged when it was announced that the Summer Games would be pushed back to 2021. But that one-year delay gave rise to new fears within the United States swimming community: doping.

With drug testers unable to regularly circulate to do their jobs during that time, there was an opportunity for athletes to use performance-enhancing drugs with a vastly diminished chance of being caught. And the nation that several U.S. coaches and officials were most concerned about was China, sources told Sports Illustrated at the time.

“This greatly increases their chances of doping,” one source said in March 2020.

Roughly six months later, the World Anti-Doping Association—the global PED watchdog group—received what sources labeled an “official intelligence report” with a “specific and credible tip” about elite-level Chinese swimmers doping. The whistleblower named individual swimmers in the intelligence report, sources say. 

And about four months after that, the tipster’s called shot came in: 23 of the country’s swimmers tested positive for Trimetazidine (or TMZ), a banned drug, during a meet in early January 2021. Among those who reportedly tested positive were some of the athletes mentioned by name by the whistleblower. 

Nothing ever happened to the swimmers who tested positive—13 of whom went on to compete for China in the Tokyo Games, with four of those 13 winning medals. At the time, the swimming world had no idea about the positive tests, having been kept completely in the dark by WADA, which deviated from its usual policy of publicly identifying athletes who test positive for prohibited substances. 

WADA accepted China’s internal investigative findings that the positive tests were the result of inadvertent environmental contamination that occurred at the hotel where the athletes were staying, citing traces of TMZ that were found in the hotel kitchen. No explanation has been offered for how the TMZ, which is used to treat heart conditions, got into the kitchen. 

“It seems so egregious,” says Natalie Coughlin Hall, who won 12 medals across three Olympics, three of them gold. “During the height of the lockdown, this is exactly what everyone was worried about. It’s just a gut punch when you see something like this.”

The entire affair remained a secret until exposes were published in late April of this year by a German television station and The New York Times. WADA subsequently defended its decision not to publicize the positive tests, saying that it would have unfairly impugned the swimmers’ reputations. The drug test revelations created a cloud that will hover over swimming at the Paris Olympics next month.

“To wonder if the competition is going to be fair when you get to Paris?” says 2016 American gold medalist Maya DiRado Andrews. “That sucks.”

When those stories broke, generations of elite American swimmers felt an unwelcome spasm of déjà vu. Many of them have been through this cycle before—whether it was East Germany in the 1970s, Russia in the 2010s or China at varying points. The U.S. has had plenty of doping scandals through the years—enough to make claiming moral high ground inadvisable, if not outright hypocritical—but relatively few of the bad headlines have come in swimming.

After hearing the latest China revelations, the old U.S. swimmers were partly bitter, partly disappointed, and largely unsurprised by the never-ending story of doping within the sport.

“I’m not shocked,” says 1992 gold medalist Summer Sanders Schlopy. “I’m frustrated and I’m sad. I’m emotional for the athletes from Tokyo. I’m emotional for the athletes preparing to compete in Paris. It brought back a lot of emotions [from her Olympic experience.]”

Sanders won gold in the 200-meter butterfly in ’92, but also was favored to win both the 200 and 400 individual medleys. She finished second in the 200 and third in the 400, one spot behind China’s Lin Li in both events. Lin broke the world record in the 200 IM, part of a breakthrough, nine-medal performance by the Chinese women in Barcelona.

China’s sudden ascendance in women’s swimming prompted suspicions from competitors. “Too Good? Too Fast? Drug Rumors Stalk Chinese,” read the headline on a New York Times story from those Barcelona Games. None of the Chinese swimmers tested positive at those Olympics—but the country’s swim program would be immersed in scandal in the years that followed.

A month after dominating the 1994 World Championships in Rome, seven Chinese swimmers tested positive for steroids at the Asian Games. That led to the nation being voted out of the ’95 Pan-Pacific Championships by the U.S., Canada, Australia and Japan. In 1998, a Chinese swimmer arriving with the rest of the team in Australia for the World Championships was found to have 13 vials of human growth hormone in her luggage. Four other Chinese competitors tested positive at the meet.

Those revelations only reinforced the feeling that Sanders had in ’92, when Chinese athletes won a lot of medals without testing positive. Was the performance in Barcelona the undetected beginning of a Chinese cheating wave?

“I see myself as a 19-year-old kid, sitting on a dais in a media room looking at a sea of adults,” she recalls. “And I'm asking myself, Is anyone thinking what I'm thinking? The only thing I could do is trust the system, as a 19-year-old kid. People still say to me, ‘You should have two more gold medals.’”

Ye Shiwen's stunning gold and world record at London 2012 Olympics are still a source of controversy, though the Chinese swimmer has never tested positive for a banned drug.Ye Shiwen's stunning gold and world record at London 2012 Olympics are still a source of controversy, though the Chinese swimmer has never tested positive for a banned drug.

Ye Shiwen's stunning gold and world record at London 2012 Olympics are still a source of controversy, though the Chinese swimmer has never tested positive for a banned drug. / Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY

Twenty years after Sanders was left to wonder what was going on, 16-year-old Ye Shiwen of China won the 400 IM at the London Olympics and broke the world record by more than a second in the process. Ye’s freestyle split of 58.68 seconds over the final 100 meters was more than 3 1/2 seconds faster than that of the previous world-record holder, Australian Stephanie Rice. More notable at the time, Ye’s 100 free split was just .03 slower than that of men’s gold medalist Ryan Lochte, and Ye actually was faster over the final 50 meters (28.93 to 29.10). 

“That last 100 meters was reminiscent of some old East German swimmers, for people who have been around a while,” said John Leonard, executive director of the World Swimming Coaches Association at the time. 

Ye, who also went on to win the 200 IM in London, has never tested positive for a banned drug. She has remained competitive internationally, but has not won another Olympic medal since then. She is qualified for Paris in two events, the 200 IM and 200 breastroke. According to the World Aquatics database, she has never again swam a time within four seconds of her 400 IM gold-medal performance. At the 2016 Olympics in Rio, her time of 4:45.86 was more than 17 seconds slower than four years earlier, placing her 27th overall. She did not come close to making finals in the event, and she did not compete in Tokyo.

“No comment,” was the immediate reaction of American 400-IMer Elizabeth Beisel to Ye’s plummeting performance in Rio. Four years earlier, Beisel had won silver to Ye’s stunning gold.

Immediately after the race in London, Beisel wondered if she had faltered badly in her final 100 meters as Ye pulled away. Then she got her split times and saw she had swum the fastest closing freestyle leg of her career. It just wasn’t anywhere near as fast as Ye’s scorching finish.

“I heard what people were saying and I wondered, Oh my God, have I just been beaten by someone who’s doping?” Beisel recalls now. “I had many people come up to me after that race. But Ye Shiwen never tested positive and I would never accuse her of anything. I believe the results were fair, because there is no evidence they were not.”

Says fellow 2012 Olympian Caitlin Leverenz Smith, who took bronze in the 200 IM that Ye won: “In 2012 there were eyebrows being raised, and if anything it’s gotten worse.”

For evidence of that, skip ahead to the athlete dining hall at the World Aquatics Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, in 2019. And a round of applause.

Sun Yang, the most famous and accomplished swimmer in Chinese history, had won the men’s 400-meter freestyle for the fourth straight time at the world championships. At the post-race medal ceremony, Australian silver medalist Mack Horton refused to stand on the podium next to Sun, whose career had been steeped in controversy. “I just won’t share a podium with someone that behaves in the way that he has,” Horton said after the race. He had previously labeled Sun a “drug cheat” at the Rio Olympics in 2016.

The podium snub resonated. When Horton entered the dining hall at the university where athletes were staying, swimmers from around the world applauded.

Two nights later, Sun won the 200-meter freestyle. On the podium afterward, co-bronze medalist Duncan Scott of Great Britain refused to shake Sun’s hand. “You’re a loser, I’m a winner,” Sun told Scott after the snub.

Sun served a three-month doping ban in 2014 after testing positive for, lo and behold, trimetazidine.  In 2018, Sun again ran afoul of testing protocol when it was reported that his mother instructed a security guard to smash vials containing his blood after a late-night random drug test. That case wasn’t resolved until June 2021, when he was suspended for four years (backdated to 2020) after an appeal of the original eight-year suspension. Sun is not on the Chinese Olympic roster for Paris, but said last month he intends to make a comeback.

So the China syndrome of cyclical controversy seems to continue.

“I don’t think anything can ruin our sport, or the Olympic movement, but PEDs,” says NBC swimming analyst and Olympic gold medalist Rowdy Gaines. “People hold our Olympians in a completely different light than other athletes. I’m not saying there aren’t cheaters in the U.S.—I’m sure there are. But when something becomes systemic, that’s when you worry about the health of the sport. Not specifically China, but the sport in general.”

Here in America, breaking news this month seems to highlight the starkly different approach to positive drug tests between China and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). On June 4, it was announced that American distance freestyler Kensey McMahon had been given a four-year suspension by USADA for a positive test in 2023.

The 24-year-old McMahon said she tested positive for Vadadustat—a medication used to treat anemia in adults with chronic kidney disease—at U.S. National Championships last summer. In an Instagram post, McMahon says she has spent months (and a lot of money) trying to find the cause of the positive test and clear her name, without success.

“The sport that I had dedicated decades of hard work towards, and all its associated opportunities, that I heard honestly, were taken away from me in an instant,” McMahon wrote. “… I’m not a cheater. I don’t take short cuts. I am incredibly conscientious and diligent with my training, diet, recovery and well-being. I was mindful about everything I put into my body. … I’ve been tested by USADA in competitions and as part of their athlete testing pool since 2016 and never had a positive test. I do believe in and support clean sport.”

McMahon says she enlisted a law firm which helped get testing for every “vitamin, supplement, hydration formula, and medication” she consumed before and during the U.S. Championships. “None were found to contain Vadadustat,” she wrote. Its presence in her system remains a mystery, she says.

Lacking proof of her innocence, McMahon’s suspension stands. This is the hard line USADA and USA Swimming walk. Does it create a level of fear for every athlete—especially in an Olympic year—about somehow testing positive in spite of precautions? Certainly. Results of competition samples drawn during U.S. Olympic Trials starting June 15 will be anxiously awaited by every athlete.

But this is the rigorous doctrine U.S. swimmers accept if they’re going to hold themselves up as exemplars of clean sport. They and other athletes in the testing pool can tell stories for hours about the rigors of drug testing.

“Ignorance is not an excuse,” DiRado Andrews says. “You’re responsible for everything that goes in your body. That goes for multivitamins and any supplements you might take. You give up an element of privacy and autonomy for the sake of integrity in sport.”

Athletes who are in the testing pool are required to document their whereabouts 24 hours per day via online forms. If testers show up to administer random tests where the athlete says he or she will be and they’re not present, it’s a violation. Three whereabouts violations can count as a positive drug test and lead to sanctions.

There are knocks on the door at 5 a.m. There are visits on vacations. Testers may show up at schools or offices. If an athlete says he or she can’t produce a urine sample, the tester will sit down and wait until that time comes.

“They watch you pee, they take your blood, they become your best friends during an Olympic year,” DiRado Andrews jokes. She said she was tested at least 30 times in 2016.

The earlier an athlete starts positing elite times, the earlier they become part of the testing regimen. DiRado Andrews says she was being educated on supplement facts at age 16. Coughlin Hall says she was first tested at age 14.

“I still have nightmares that I haven’t updated my whereabouts,” she said.

“We let people literally invade our lives to have a clean sport,” Leverenz Smith says.

For the athletes who consented to that invasion in 2021 and lost to Chinese swimmers who had tested positive in secret, there is disillusionment. (“Those are all moments these athletes can’t get back,” Sanders Schlopy says. “Even if those medals are retroactively changed, you don’t get that spot on the podium, or to hear your anthem.”)

For the athletes who could be facing those same Chinese swimmers in Paris, there is a looming paranoia. If 23 swimmers could test positive and nobody found out about it for three years, what else could possibly be going on?

“They’re disheartened and frustrated,” says Leverenz Smith, who is chair of USA Swimming’s Athletes Advisory Council and has held multiple conference calls with current athletes to keep them apprised of developments with the China fallout. “They want to be able to get on the blocks and look left and look right and trust that this is a fair competition.”

Trust is hard to have at the moment. But suspicion is poisonous as the days wind down to the most pressurized meet in the world, the U.S. Olympic Trials. If ever there were a time to stay in their own lane, literally and figuratively, this is it. 

“You rely on your controllables,” Coughlin Hall says. “You can’t control who might be cheating. But there is a psychological toll this takes.”

Adds Beisel: “This story breaking before the Paris Games casts a massive cloud of doubt, but you just have to put the blinders on and trust what you’re doing.”

Seven-time Olympic medalist Katie Ledecky has voiced concerns about her faith in the sport's anti-doping systems ahead of Paris.Seven-time Olympic medalist Katie Ledecky has voiced concerns about her faith in the sport's anti-doping systems ahead of Paris.

Seven-time Olympic medalist Katie Ledecky has voiced concerns about her faith in the sport's anti-doping systems ahead of Paris. / Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY

Some current American swimmers have spoken out on the issue. (“China cheated,” breastroker Cody Miller flatly declares. Superstar Katie Ledecky, who anchored an 800 freestyle relay that finished second to China’s world-record effort in Tokyo, voiced her concerns to CBS Morning News recently: “It’s hard going into Paris knowing that we're gonna be racing some of these athletes,” Ledecky said. “And I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low.”)

Many others have tried to avoid it—which will be a futile stance at Trials in Indianapolis. The delicate situation has motivated many of the former swimmers to do the talking for the current generation. (The most prominent former swimmer of all-time, Michael Phelps, had nothing to say on the subject. Phelps declined to be interviewed for this story through his representatives at Octagon Sports.)

“Leading to the Olympic games, you have zero mental capacity to worry about who’s clean,” Sanders Schlopy says. “They shouldn't have to make a huge media stand to have a clean sport. It takes a once-in-a-lifetime athlete like Lilly King, who had the guts to stand up.”

King made her famous stand in 2016, calling out Russian breastroker Yulia Efimova, who twice had been suspended for positive drug tests. Efimova was supposed to be banned from the Rio Games but was reinstated shortly before the competition. King, who would race Efimova in the 100-meter breaststroke, made no secret of her disapproval.

“You know, you’re shaking your finger number one and you’ve been caught for drug cheating," King told NBC after the two competed in the semifinals of the event. “I’m just not a fan.”

King backed up her talk by taking gold in the event. Will other Americans act similarly before, during or after facing Chinese swimmers in Paris? Whether it’s processed as external or internal motivation, the fuel is there.

“I’d probably swim angry if I were them,” DiRado Andrews said. “What else can you do?”

Editor's Note: Pat Forde's daughter, Brooke Forde, was a member of the 800-meter freestyle relay team that finished finished second to China at the Tokyo Olympics.

Caitlin Clark Had Classy Response to U.S. Olympic Team Snub

Caitlin Clark Had Classy Response to U.S. Olympic Team Snub

The basketball world went into a frenzy when the U.S. Olympic women's basketball team was announced on Saturday, mostly because Caitlin Clark was left off the roster.

While many fans were upset about this "snub," Clark reacted to the news with class by explaining how she wasn't disappointed to hear the news. Instead, she's using this as motivation to help her make the team for the 2028 Olympics.

"Honestly, no disappointment. I think it just gives you something to work for," Clark said, via Indy Star's Chloe Peterson. "It's a dream, hopefully one day I can be there. I think it's just a little more motivation. You remember that and hopefully in four years, when four years comes back around, I can be there."

Here are her full comments:

Instead of just focusing on herself, Clark shifted the conversation to talk about how excited she is for the 12 women who were named to Team USA.

"I'm excited for the girls that are on the team," Clark said. "I know it's the most competitive team in the world. I know it could've gone either way of me being on the team, me not being on the team. I'm excited for them. I'm going to be rooting them on to win gold."

Clark has helped bring in record crowds to Indiana Fever games this season, and her stardom was reportedly part of the reason she was kept off the Olympic team this year as the team worried how fans would "react to what would likely be limited playing time on a stacked roster."

New Report Reveals Why Fever Star Caitlin Clark Was Left Off Team USA

New Report Reveals Why Fever Star Caitlin Clark Was Left Off Team USA

Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark's omission from the Team USA basketball roster for the 2024 summer Olympics in Paris left fans outraged and many questioning the reason why she was snubbed.

According to a report from Christine Brennan of USA TODAY, there were concerns within Team USA of how Clark's millions of fans would "react to what would likely be limited playing time on a stacked roster."

The Team USA roster is loaded without a doubt, but Clark's presence, even on the end of the bench, would certainly drive marketing around the premier worldwide sporting event,

Instead, Clark will be at home this summer, enjoying a mid-season Olympic break from the WNBA to rest up and root for the players who did make the roster.

Clark tied a career-high with 30 points in Friday night's victory over the win-less Washington Mystics. In her first WNBA season, she is averaging 16.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 6.3 assists on 37.3% shooting from the floor.

The Fever take the court again on Monday against the Connecticut Sun, looking to capture their fourth win of the season.

Basketball Fans Question Caitlin Clark's Team USA Snub for 2024 Summer Olympics

Basketball Fans Question Caitlin Clark’s Team USA Snub for 2024 Summer Olympics

Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark, who starred at Iowa and is a key reason for the boom in popularity of women's basketball over the last couple of years, was reportedly left off Team USA's roster for the 2024 Summer Olympics.

There's an argument to be made that Clark would be at the end of the bench if she did make Team USA this summer, but it's still a curious decision to leave her off the roster given her draw in media.

While Clark has been up-and-down in her first season as a professional, she brings eyeballs to the television and the arena, as exhibited by the sellout crowd of 20,333 in attendance to see Clark and the Fever take on the Washington Mystics on Friday night at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. The sellout crowd was the largest WNBA crowd in 17 years.

Clark had her best game of her rookie season in front of that crowd, scoring 30 points on seven made threes, while adding eight rebounds, six assists and four steals.

Clark joins Dallas Wings guard Arike Ogunbowale as notable snubs for the summer Olympics roster. Here's who Team USA will be bringing instead, which is undoubtedly a loaded group.

On television draw alone, many expected Clark to make the roster. Now that she hasn't, basketball fans across social media are outraged.

Wild Time-Lapse Video Shows Lucas Oil Stadium Transformation for Olympic Swim Trials

Wild Time-Lapse Video Shows Lucas Oil Stadium Transformation for Olympic Swim Trials

Lucas Oil Stadium is used to switching between sports. Since opening in August 2008, the Indianapolis venue has played host to football, basketball, soccer and innumerable other activities.

This month, however, the home of the Indianapolis Colts is taking on an unprecedented challenge: swimming's U.S. Olympic Trials.

Yes, the same venue where Colts quarterback Gardner Minshew was slinging passes five short months ago will welcome Caeleb Dressel, Katie Ledecky and others beginning June 15. Wednesday afternoon, USA Swimming gave fans a peek behind the curtain at Lucas Oil Stadium's stunning aquatic makeover.

A time-lapse video depicted crews tearing up the stadium floor and putting in three Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Indianapolis has long been a favorite destination for the Olympic swim trials, but this will be the city's first time hosting the event since 2000. Omaha has hosted the last four in 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2021, respectively.

Swimming at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris is scheduled to begin on July 27.

SI:AM | Novak Djokovic’s Injury Throws His Summer Into Uncertainty

SI:AM | Novak Djokovic’s Injury Throws His Summer Into Uncertainty

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m very much ready for the NBA Finals to finally begin.

In today’s SI:AM:

🎾 Djokovic’s future in doubt
🎰 Baseball’s greatest sin
🏀 Laurence Fishburne Q&A

The greatest men’s tennis player in history just hit a serious roadblock in his pursuit of adding to his record number of Grand Slam titles.

Novak Djokovic was forced to withdraw from the French Open with a knee injury Tuesday, one day after he outlasted Francisco Cerundolo in a five-set thriller in the fourth round that took nearly five hours to complete.

An MRI found that Djokovic has a torn medial meniscus in his right knee. According to multiple reports, Djokovic will undergo surgery to repair the injury in Paris on Wednesday.

The surgery places Djokovic’s status for Wimbledon in serious doubt. The tournament is set to begin on July 1, giving Djokovic less than a month to recover from the procedure. It’ll also be a fairly tight turnaround before this summer’s Olympics in Paris, which begin on July 27.

“The likelihood is that Djokovic will skip the grass-court swing to focus on playing at the Paris Olympics,” ESPN’s Tom Hamilton reported.

It makes sense that Djokovic would want to prioritize the Olympics over Wimbledon. He’s already won seven times at the All England Club and Olympic gold is the only major honor that he has yet to win in his storied career. He won bronze at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing but has failed to even medal at the last three Olympics. At 37, this is almost assuredly Djokovic’s last chance to win gold.

Skipping the grass court season could also be beneficial for Djokovic because he wouldn’t have to reacclimate himself to the clay courts of Roland Garros, where the Olympic tournament will be held.

But it also seems naive to just assume that, at his age, Djokovic will be able to recover from knee surgery and pick up where he left off. By the time the Olympics begin, he will be older than the oldest Grand Slam champion in men’s tennis history (1972 Australian Open champ Ken Rosewell, who was 37 years, 54 days old when he won). Djokovic’s contemporaries Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal started fading when they reached the age Djokovic is now, both due largely to injuries (a knee for Federer and a hip for Nadal). And Djokovic was already struggling this season before the injury, failing to reach the final in any of the six tournaments he played before Roland Garros. It’s fair to wonder what he’ll look like after rehabbing an injury.

Whether or not the end is imminent for Djokovic, his injury makes it natural to start thinking about the next era of men’s tennis. His career might not be over yet, but it will be before long. His withdrawal from the French led to one major torch-passing moment, as 22-year-old Jannik Sinner will now become the No. 1 player in the world at the conclusion of the tournament. He and 21-year-old Carlos Alcaraz (currently ranked No. 3) are the future of the sport. The question is how much longer they’ll have to battle with Djokovic.

May 21, 2023; Miami, Florida, USA;  Celtics’ Jaylen Brown picks up teammate Jayson Tatum off the court.May 21, 2023; Miami, Florida, USA;  Celtics’ Jaylen Brown picks up teammate Jayson Tatum off the court.

Brown (7) and Tatum will play in their second NBA Finals. / Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports

… things I saw yesterday:

5. Elly De La Cruz’s 448-foot home run to dead center.
4. David Ortiz’s call of a home run while he was a guest in the Red Sox booth.
3. This magic bullet pitch that hit the batter in the head and the catcher in the crotch.
2. 16-year-old Lily Yohannes’s first goal for the U.S. women’s national team.
1. Jayda Coleman’s walk-off home run for Oklahoma to keep the Sooners’ pursuit of a fourth-straight softball national championship alive.

Former NBA Player Set to Represent United States in Olympic Beach Volleyball

Former NBA Player Set to Represent United States in Olympic Beach Volleyball

If you thought the United States men's basketball team—Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James, Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant and friends—was the only cohort of American NBA players headed to the Paris Olympics, you would be mistaken.

One other ex-NBAer is headed to sports' biggest stage—in beach volleyball.

Chase Budinger, a forward for the Houston Rockets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Indiana Pacers and Suns from 2010-16, has officially qualified for the Paris Games. Budinger and partner Miles Evans punched their ticket Wednesday, with the elimination of Americans Theo Brunner and Trevor Crabb from a qualifying tournament in the Czech Republic.

A blue-chip prospect in both basketball and volleyball out of high school, Budinger chose hoops and played three productive seasons at Arizona. The Detroit Pistons made him the 44th pick of the 2009 NBA draft.

In 2018, he returned to beach volleyball, beginning a successful partnership with Evans in 2023.

Olympic competition in the sport is scheduled to open July 27.

Bills Sign Olympic Wrestling Champ Gable Steveson as Defensive Tackle

Bills Sign Olympic Wrestling Champ Gable Steveson as Defensive Tackle

Three years after winning an Olympic gold medal, wrestler Gable Steveson is trying his hand at another sport.

Steveson has agreed to a three-year contract with the Buffalo Bills, the team announced Friday. The Bills will give Steveson, who has no American football experience, a try at defensive tackle.

According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, Steveson had never worn cleats before working out for Buffalo.

The 6'1", 265-pound Steveson won gold in the freestyle 125-kilogram weight class at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, besting Georgia's Geno Petriashvili in the final. Before that, he won two national championships at Minnesota.

After his Olympic triumph, Steveson switched to professional wrestling and spent three years with the WWE. The company released him on May 3.

As Schefter pointed out, only one man—Hall of Fame wide receiver and sprinter Bob Hayes—has won both a Super Bowl and an Olympic gold medal.

The Bills are scheduled to open their season on Sept. 8 against the Arizona Cardinals.

Gabby Douglas's 2024 Olympic Journey Ends With Championships Withdrawal

Gabby Douglas’s 2024 Olympic Journey Ends With Championships Withdrawal

Three-time Olympic gold medalist Gabby Douglas's journey to the 2024 Paris Olympics came to a close on Wednesday when she officially withdrew from the U.S. Gymnastics Championships due to an ankle injury, via The Athletic.

Douglas will not be able to qualify for the Olympic Trials because of this withdrawal. A couple weeks ago, Douglas withdrew from the 2024 Core Hydration Classic after one event.

This would've been Douglas's third Team USA bid if she were to make the team. She was the 2012 Olympic all-around champion in London, then competed in Rio in 2016, but she was not part of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics team.

However, Douglas isn't calling her Olympic gymnastics career over yet. She has her sights on the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles now.

“My plan is to continue to train for the L.A. 2028 Olympics,” Douglas said, via ESPN. “It would be such an honor to represent the U.S. at a home Olympics.”

The U.S. Gymnastics Championships begin on Friday in Fort Worth, Texas.

Katie Ledecky Discusses Receiving Presidential Medal of Freedom from Joe Biden: 'I Was Speechless'

Katie Ledecky Discusses Receiving Presidential Medal of Freedom from Joe Biden: ‘I Was Speechless’

Anyone scanning the list of Friday's Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients would find the usual parade of senior government officials: 76-year-old former Vice President Al Gore, 80-year-old former Secretary of State John Kerry, and 84-year-old former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, to name just a few.

And then there was swimmer Katie Ledecky, 27, who the nation "watches ... in awe" as a White House release phrased it.

"It was pretty surreal," Ledecky told Sports Illustrated of the honor bestowed upon her Friday by President Joe Biden. "Just listening to all the accomplishments and all the impact that all of these individuals have made on our country was pretty inspiring. I think being young still, it does inspire me to continue to work really hard, both in the pool and out."

Ledecky is believed to be the first swimmer ever to receive the honor. A consensus choice on any list of the greatest American Olympians, the Bethesda, Md., native has won seven Olympic gold medals and three silvers across her decorated career. Many of her greatest races have been comically lopsided, and she has long- and short-course world records in the 800- and 1500-meter freestyles to her name.

The 21-time world champion brought her parents, brother, uncle, former coach, two family friends and the head of her high school to collect her medal—which she said rendered her "speechless."

"I never would've imagined I would receive this recognition," Ledecky said. "It was a thrill to be able to be here. Just a really incredible day meeting some extraordinary people."

Over a decade after bursting onto the scene as a 15-year-old at the London Olympics in 2012, Ledecky has gradually embraced an ambassadorial role in the swimming world. She has a memoir out in June, and appears likely to figure among the seasoned veterans on the American swimming team in Paris this summer.

If a four-medal haul at last year's world championships in Fukuoka is any indication, though, she remains firmly at the top of her game in a sport with famously cruel patterns of aging. Beyond Paris, she's told various outlets she's eyeing the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles as well.

"I want to represent our team well in the pool and also help the younger swimmers coming up on these teams, make sure that they're feeling comfortable and confident. I'm really excited for this summer," Ledecky said. "(I'm) continuing to put in the work. I got my swim in this morning."

Ledecky's fourth Olympics comes amid a watershed year for women's sports. Women's college basketball, professional soccer and professional hockey have all hit cultural milestones over the last year.

That's a testament to the strength of the athletes in those sports, according to Ledecky—and American Olympians have a chance to carry that torch in Paris.

"It's our responsibility to be great ambassadors for our country when we go compete—to show good sportsmanship, to compete with great respect for our competitors and to be leaders in our communities and in our country," Ledecky said. "We know young kids look up to us and we have to be good role models because we want the next generation to do great things, whether that's in athletics or in government or in music or in the arts."

In Fukuoka, Ledecky broke icon and fellow Maryland native Michael Phelps's record for individual world titles. But because she lags behind him in a crucial statistic, she has no plans to rub in the fact she received presidential decoration first to Phelps.

"He still has way more (Olympic) medals than I do," Ledecky said.