IOC denies covering up 2008 Beijing Olympics doping cases

LAUSANNE: The IOC denied on Monday that it covered up doping cases from the 2008 Beijing Olympics after a German TV program revealed that positive tests by Jamaican sprinters were not prosecuted.

German documentary maker Hajo Seppelt said “several” of the Caribbean island’s athletes had traces of clenbuterol, a banned muscle-building substance, in recent re-tests of 8-year-old urine samples.

No athletes were identified. Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt won three gold medals in worldrecord times and was the star of the Beijing Games.

The IOC said on Monday it concluded there was no pattern of organized cheating, after consulting the World Anti-Doping Agency.

“After careful consideration, WADA informed the IOC further to the pattern analysis that the IOC had conducted that WADA could not find any significant and consistent pattern of abuse of clenbuterol in these cases and that it would be appropriate not to take these cases any further,” the IOC said in a statement.

The low levels of clenbuterol found, “below 1ng/ml,” was in the range to suggest “potential meat contamination cases,” the IOC said.

China has a reputation for using clenbuterol in livestock farming to increase animals’ muscle, and Olympic athletes were warned of contamination risks before going to Beijing.

Without naming Jamaica, the IOC said the number of clenbuterol cases in the re-tests was widespread.

WADA cited a legal precedent when FIFA did not prosecute more than 100 positive tests for clenbuterol at the Under-17 World Cup in 2011 in Mexico, which also has a reputation for using the drug in farming.