The Vials in the Thermos

The 13 vials were packed in ice inside a thermos flask. Australian customs officers found them in swimmer Yuan Yuan's luggage at Sydney Airport; they had not been declared and were labeled in English as “human somatropin,” an Australian Customs spokesman said. The material was described as human growth hormone, turning an item of luggage into the first visible breach in a case that would reach the international governing body for swimming.

Yuan Yuan's coach, Zhou Zewen, then admitted that he had put the growth hormone in her luggage. That admission connected the athlete's sanction to a second disciplinary question: what responsibility belonged to the person who had packed the drugs. FINA banned Yuan Yuan from competition for four years and barred Zhou from his occupation for 15 years. The unequal penalties made the division clear. The swimmer lost access to competition; the coach lost access to his profession.

The case also became a test of FINA's willingness to act under outside pressure. The Australian government pressed the federation for firm action, and Sports Minister Andrew Thomson met FINA President Mustapha Larfaoui, saying the penalties should be severe. Alongside the luggage seizure, FINA said four other Chinese swimmers—Wang Wei, Wang Luna, Cai Huijue, and Zhang Yi—had tested positive for the banned substance triamterene. FINA said those samples were collected on January 8, giving the federation a separate set of positive-test cases to address.

The seizure and the positive tests were not the same kind of case: one began with undeclared vials, the other with laboratory findings. Together they pushed FINA's response beyond the penalties imposed on Yuan Yuan and Zhou. The federation announced a task force of science, research, and forensic experts to examine drug problems in swimming. What had begun with a thermos in an athlete's luggage ended with FINA enlarging the question from who should be punished to how the sport would investigate its drug problems.