In a major doping crackdown, 31 athletes in six sports could be barred from competing in this year’s Olympics.
IN a major doping crackdown, 31 athletes in six sports could be barred from competing in this year’s Olympics after drug samples from the 2008 Beijing Games were tested again.
The International Olympic Committee opened disciplinary proceedings on Tuesday against the 31 unidentified athletes from 12 countries who competed in Beijing and were planning to take part in the Rio de Janeiro Games in August.
“This is a powerful strike against the cheats,” IOC President Thomas Bach said. “They show once again that dopers have no place to hide.”
The IOC said it also planned to reanalyse drug tests from the 2014 Sochi Winter Games after allegations samples were tampered with as part of a state-sponsored Russian doping program.
The positive cases from Beijing emerged from the recent retesting of 454 doping samples with “the very latest scientific analysis methods,” the IOC said.
The Olympic body stores samples for 10 years to allow for retesting with improved techniques, with athletes caught facing retroactive disqualification and loss of any medals.
The IOC said it could not immediately identify the athletes caught in the Beijing retests for legal reasons, saying it would inform the relevant national Olympic committees in the coming days. “All those athletes infringing anti-doping rules will be banned from competing at the Olympic Games” in Rio, the IOC said after a teleconference meeting of its policymaking executive board.
Fireworks explode during the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympics.
Results of retesting of 250 samples from the London Olympics will be announced shortly, the IOC said. Those tests were also aimed at athletes planning to compete in Rio.
The IOC said it would also undertake a “wider retesting program” of medallists from both the Beijing and London Games. Samples of athletes who could be promoted to medals following disqualification of drug cheats will also be retested.
The IOC also asked the World Anti-Doping Agency to launch a “fully-fledged investigation” into allegations that the drug-testing system in Sochi was subverted by Russian officials.
The IOC said it would ask the Lausanne anti-doping lab and WADA to proceed with analysing Sochi samples “in the most sophisticated and efficient way possible.”
It’s unclear, however, how many samples are still intact for reliable retesting.
Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of the Russian anti-doping laboratory, told the New York Times last week that he gave Russian athletes a cocktail of drugs before the Olympics and switched tainted urine samples for clean ones during the games. He has offered to assist in retesting.
International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach. Picture: Britta Campion
The statute of limitations for retesting was extended in 2015 from eight to 10 years, meaning the Beijing samples remain valid through 2018.
It’s not the first time that samples from Beijing have been retested. A few months after those games, the IOC reanalysed nearly 1000 of the total of 4000 samples with a new test for the blood-boosting drug CERA. Five athletes were caught, including 1500-metre gold medallist Rashid Ramzi of Bahrain.
Nearly 500 doping samples from the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin have already been retested. The IOC has not disclosed whether those retests had produced any positive cases.
Five athletes were caught in retests of samples from the 2004 Athens Olympics, including men’s shot put winner Yuriy Bilonog of Ukraine.
On a separate issue, the IOC said it would “work to shed full light” on bribery allegations tied to Tokyo’s winning bid for the 2020 Olympics.
French prosecutors said last week that 2.8 million Singapore dollars ($2 million) was apparently transferred from Japan to the Singapore account of a company tied to the son of former IAAF President Lamine Diack, who is facing corruption charges.
Tokyo bid leaders acknowledged the payments were made, but said they were for legitimate consulting fees.
The IOC said it would remain a civil party to the French investigation and its chief ethics officer would “actively co-operate” in the inquiry.
The Carioca Arena 2 at the Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Na terça-feira, o Comitê Olímpico Internacional (COI), realizou processos disciplinares contra os 31 atletas não identificados em seis esportes, todos eles competiram em Pequim (2008) e que planejaram competir novamente nos Jogos Olímpicos do Rio de Janeiro em agosto.

A principal investigação de doping por alegações de drogas nos Jogos Olímpicos de Pequim 2008 surgiram a partir das amostras colhidas nos Jogos de 2008 que está sendo testada novamente, o que significa que potencialmente os concorrentes de todos os doze países poderão perderem seus lugares para competição a este evento deste ano.

Havia cerca de 4.500 testes realizados durante os Jogos de Pequim com apenas seis atletas pegos no momento e mais três nos meses seguintes. Os comitês do COI testam amostras de dez anos atrás para que um novo teste possa ocorrer com técnicas científicas melhoradas. Estas mais recentes resultados de testes positivos seguem a reanálise nas 454 amostras, o que significa que os atletas estarão impedidos, poderão enfrentar desqualificação retroativa e a perda de medalhas.

Os atletas atualmente em questão não foram identificados por razões legais, mas o COI irá informar comitês olímpicos nacionais nos próximos dias.

O COI afirmou que "todos aqueles atletas que violarem as regras anti-doping serão proibidos de competir nos Jogos Olímpicos".

As amostras dos Jogos de Londres 2012 também foram testados e os resultados serão anunciados em breve. O COI também tem a intenção de testar novamente amostras nos Jogos Olímpicos de Inverno de 2014 em Sochi por alegadas violações.

O presidente do COI, Thomas Bach, diz que "esta é um ataque poderoso contra as fraudes". Cinco atletas dos Jogos Olímpicos de Atenas (2004) foram apanhados com resultados positivos em retestes, incluindo Lançamento do Peso e Medalha de Ouro,  da .

O COI diz que "quer parar muitos atletas dopados de participarem no Rio de Janeiro, estamos mostrando mais uma vez a nossa determinação em proteger a integridade da competição olímpica."