Last week, the organization said 31 athletes failed doping tests when 454 samples were re-examined from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The Russians have been accused of state-sponsored doping at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, and the International Olympic Committee has asked WADA to carry out a full-fledged investigation and plans to retest Sochi samples.
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Farah won the distance double at the 2012 London Olympics and will defend both titles at Rio in August.
The new findings cover five different sports and six global federations, and were all based on intelligence-gathering that began in August previous year. This is why we are acting swiftly now.
It will not name the athletes or the sports until second samples have been tested, a process which can take several weeks. The current retesting program targeted athletes who could be eligible to compete in Rio. Russian Federation has argued it would be unfair to ban its entire team from the Rio Olympics, but critics say evidence of systematic, state-backed doping should be enough to keep them out. “I have already appointed a disciplinary commission, which has the full power to act on it on behalf of the International Olympic Committee”, he declared. But its new statement said a 32nd case had shown “abnormal parameters” with further investigation pending.
The samples were re-examined after intelligence-gathering that began last August, the International Olympic Committee said in a statement.
This news comes after canoeist Liviu Dumitrescu, multiple world and European champion, was tested positive for HGH (human growth hormone) during an unannounced doping control of the National Anti-Doping Agency on April 6.
But the latest doping revelations have again rocked the build-up to Rio, with the start of the Olympics little more than two months away.
The world athletics governing body IAAF is set to rule on June 17 whether to lift Russia’s provisional suspension from Rio over evidence of state-sponsoring doping in Russian athletics.
WADA is also now investigating claims by the former head of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory Grigory Rodchenkov that Russian secret service and government officials subverted samples at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics to cover up failures by Russian competitors.
“I’ve said for a long time I’ve wanted everybody who has ever cheated considered cheating not to do so or be caught”.
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“Even one cheat in that 10,500 is too many but, using intelligence-based testing, the message is clear to any athlete who believes they may be a little ahead of testing technology at any given moment in their career: we will catch you; we will not stop building profiles or sharing information”.
