Anti-doping program nearly collapsed at Rio

The World Anti-Doping Agency has detailed serious failings of doping control management at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, saying the system was only saved from collapsing by the “enormous resourcefulness and goodwill” of some key staff.

In a 55-page report from its independent observer team led by British lawyer Jonathan Taylor, WADA said the logistical issues which put a strain on the testing process were “foreseeable and entirely avoidable” during the games in August.

The report blamed a lack of co-ordination, budget cutbacks, tension between the local organizing committee and Brazil’s anti-doping agency, and inadequate training for the problems that included days when only half of the out-ofcompetition samples could be collected in the athletes village.

“Ultimately, many athletes targeted for testing in the athletes village simply could not be found and the mission had to be aborted,” the report said.

The report said the sample collection process in the village was so strained that it came “close to breaking point.”

“Ultimately, it was only due to the enormous resourcefulness and goodwill of some key doping control personnel working at the games that the process did not break down entirely,” the report said. “Due to their initiative, tenacity and professionalism in the face of great difficulties, the many problems identified above were patched over and sample collection was conducted in a manner that ensured the identity and integrity of the samples.”

In another key failure, the report said no out-of-competition testing was conducted in soccer and “little or no in-competition blood testing” in some high risk sports, including weightlifting.

In a statement to The Associated Press, Rio organizers accepted some of the responsibility for the testing failures, but also blamed Brazil’s government.

“We should have been more efficient in protecting the access to the doping control areas in some venue,” Rio spokesman Mario Andrada said. “Most of the content of the report, however, has to do with hardware and operational issues of the lab, which are a responsibility of the federal government and the sports ministry.”