NZ swim star Lewis Clareburt has gone out of his way to ensure he's as educated and informed as possible on the biggest scandal tarnishing his beloved sport.
He’s read lots and listened to podcasts about it all and it's allowed him to now come to his own conclusion about it - and he feels let down.
"As an athlete in New Zealand, we feel like we have different treatment compared to the Chinese," Clareburt told Newshub. "We believe that they [Chinese swimmers] weren't treated in a fair manner or in a manner that the rest of the world would be treated."
It emerged earlier this month that seven months before the Tokyo Olympics, 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for banned drug trimetazidine.
The Chinese swimmers in question didn't face any suspension, with the World Anti-Doping Agency trusting local authorities, who claimed samples were contaminated by various items at a team hotel.
Thirteen went on to compete at the Olympics - one of them was the winner of the 200 individual medley that Clareburt was a finalist in.
He's concerned it'll happen again in Paris.
"Always," he admitted. "As an athlete, you're always thinking, 'Are the guys that I'm competing against clean?'"
Clareburt concedes all he can do is trust what is said and done by anti-doping agencies. He notes that Drug Free Sport New Zealand has been incredibly supportive and proactive.
WADA, not so much.
"We just hope that they're doing their best for us. I think they've [WADA] let us down in this case especially, leading into the Olympics last time.
"We hope that whatever they're doing this time is more thoughtful for the rest of the athletes around the world.”
Swimming New Zealand Olympic programme lead Gary Francis is proud of the way Clareburt’s shouldered the responsibility, which has helped him inform others around him.
"I think it's been really mature," Francis told Newshub. "From an athletes' perspective, they're pretty shocked.
"They're pretty disgusted with some of the things that they've heard, and it's easy to then exclaim that and create more, maybe unnecessary attention for themselves.
"I think the way that Lewis handled it has been really, really impressive."
Francis believes potential cheating may have cost other athletes the chance to represent their country.
"You look at some of the athletes who are not on our team this week and they're not on our team, because they just missed out on a qualifying time.
"Then you go back and you look at the history of qualifying times, and are those qualifying times inflated over the years and years of continual cheating and abuse?
"You wonder just how many more of those guys could actually be on Olympic teams."
Regardless, Clareburt can also see a positive way of spinning the saga and he's determined to use it as fuel in Paris.
"If I'm beating these guys that aren't doing it naturally, then we're in a pretty good spot, and I just hope that's not the case, but obviously, you never really know until you know."
He does know he’s a genuine medal contender heading into the Games. Named as part of a nine-swimmer team, Clareburt's aware of the responsibility on his shoulders, despite only being 24.
"I do see myself as a bit of a leader on the team that has already been to one Olympics and I can sort of show the ropes to some of the other guys, and hopefully together we can do some pretty magical stuff."
It's a team certainly that could do magical stuff. Clareburt and Erika Fairweather are both world champions, while the likes of Eve Thomas continue to impress on the world stage, at a time when several swimmers are breaking records and achieving milestone marks.
After admittedly not having the full Olympic experience in his debut Games four years ago, Clareburt's looking forward to embracing it this time - particularly the food.
"I think I'm excited for all the different croissants I'm going to try. I've got a really cool French bakery below where I live right now and I've been really getting into all of the breads.
"I've actually started cooking a few types of bread myself and I'm a huge food lover, so anything French... maybe some snails.
"I've never tried them before, so that'll be interesting."
