Michael Phelps demands new rule for swimming drug cheats as US legend wades into Chinese row at Paris Olympics

US swimming legend Michael Phelps has called for Olympic lifetime bans to be imposed on any athlete who has been caught doping.

Cheating at the Olympic Games became a storyline again after a scandal involving Chinese swimmers that surfaced earlier this year.

Getty

Getty

China won gold in the men’s 4x100m medley relay in Paris, beating Team USA — who had not lost the event since 1980 — and France.

The group featured Qin Haiyang and Sun Jiajun, who tested positive for the performance-enhanced substance trimetazidine before the 2020 Tokyo Games, The New York Times reported in April.

Haiyang and Jiajun were allowed to compete with the World Anti-Doping Agency saying the substance levels were insignificant and the swimmers didn’t know they ingested it with contaminated food.

With the two athletes among a nearly dozen others who won medals in Paris having failed a drug test before the Tokyo Games, Olympics legends spoke up about doping in sports.

Those included Phelps , 39, who said a positive test should result in a life-long disqualification.

“If you test positive, you should never be allowed to come back and compete again, cut and dry,” the 23-time Olympic gold medalist said during a press availability on Monday.

“I believe one and done.”

Phelps added, “It does break my heart to see people put hard effort into four straight years to prepare for an Olympic Games, then to have it taken away from them by somebody who is cheating.

“It’s not right. I stand for that and I will always stand for that.”

Phelps brought up the many doping allegations he was subjected to as he dominated in the pool throughout his career.

Because of those, the American said, he underwent extra tests to prove he was clean heading to the 2008 Beijing Olympics where he won a record-breaking eight gold medals.

“If everybody is not going through that same testing, I have a serious problem because it means the level of sport is not fair and it’s not even,” he said.

“If you’re taking that risk, then you don’t belong in here.”

Phelps went as far as to say he “doesn’t think he ever competed in an even playing field or a clean field.”

It does break my heart to see people put hard effort into four straight years to prepare for an Olympic Games, then to have it taken away from them by somebody who is cheating

Michael Phelps

He also had a clear message for those who use PEDs to boost their Olympic chances.

“Go ahead and go to the cheater games,” Phelps said.

“Keep the Olympics about integrity.”

Phelps’ comments echoed recent remarks from Team GB star Adam Peaty.

“If you touch and you know that you’re cheating, you’re not winning, right?” Peaty, a two-time Olympic swimming champion, said last week.

“I don’t want to paint a whole nation or group of people with one brush, I think that’s very unfair.

“To the people that need to do their job – wake up and do your job.”