Almost two dozen athletes have tested positive for banned drugs in a reanalysis of samples from the 2012 London Olympics, the International Olympic Committee said Friday.
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Names of the dopers were not disclosed by International Olympic Committee, which only said the 23 were from six countries and five sports at the London Games.
Press Association Sport understands no British athletes are involved in the failed tests following the reanalysis of 265 selected doping samples.
It said further information would not be released until so-called “B samples” were tested that would confirm or contradict the retests.
Last week, it announced that 31 athletes could be banned from competing at Rio de Janeiro this summer, after re-examining hundreds of samples from the 2008 Games. Its track and field athletes are now banned from global competition and may not be allowed to compete in Rio.
Russian Federation this week confirmed that 14 of their athletes were found to be positive in the 2008 Beijing Olympics after retesting.
The IOC has yet to announce the names of those who tested positive.
All athletes found to have infringed the anti-doping rules will be banned from competing at Rio.
“These re-analyses show, once again, our determination in the fight against doping”, IOC President Thomas Bach said. “We want to keep the dopers away from the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro”.
The IOC say the reanalysis programme is ongoing, with the possibility of more results in the weeks to come. This is why we are acting swiftly now.
‘These reanalyses show our determination in the fight against doping, ‘ said International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.
It has been working with the WADA in that period.
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Greg Rutherford, who won long-jump gold on Super Saturday at London 2012, added: “It’s all well and good getting caught years later, as we’ve seen from Beijing and London”. Reprimands will be applied if results are confirmed in retests.
