Twenty-three athletes at the London 2012 Olympic Games, from five different sports and of six different nationalities, tested positive for banned drugs after samples were reanalysed, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced yesterday.
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Now the Olympic Committee of Russian Federation will have to tell IOC who of the suspected athletes will be present at the retesting of their B samples.
The re-tests from the 2008 and 2012 Games were targeted at athletes who could potentially participate in Rio and seem certain to lead to bans from this summer’s Olympics.
Russia’s Sports Minister Vilaty Mutko gestures as he answers a journalist’s questions, after their press tour of its anti doping laboratory in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, May 24, 2016.
The Rio Olympic Games will start only in August, but the games have already its first doping scandal.
The news follows revelations last week that samples from 31 athletes in the 2008 Beijing Games had suspicious results out of 454 retests.
The IOC say the reanalysis programme is ongoing, with the possibility of more results in the weeks to come.
Coe, who was the chairman of London 2012, believes that the positive tests need to be interpreted carefully, taking into account the history of the Olympic Games.
All the athletes, national Olympic committees and worldwide federations concerned are already being informed, after which the proceedings against the athletes would begin.
The ROC will soon inform the International Olympic Committee the list of interested athletes that will be present during unsealing and analysis of their B samples, while ROC representatives would also be present as observers during the process.
It said further information would not be released until so-called “B samples” were tested that would confirm or contradict the retests.
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“Retrospective analysis allows us to pursue those who cheat clean athletes, long after the competition has ended”.
