More doping from past Games
LONDON — Forty-five more athletes, including 31 medalists, have been caught for doping after retesting of samples from the last two Summer Olympics, the IOC said Friday.
The new cases bring to 98 the total number of athletes who have failed tests in the re-analysis of their stored samples from the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 Games held in London.
Using “the very latest scientific analysis methods,” the latest round of retests produced 30 “provisional” positive findings from Beijing and 15 confirmed positives from London, the International Olympic Committee reported.
The IOC said 23 medalists from Beijing and eight medal winners from London were among those caught.
No names were given by the IOC.
The IOC’s news release cited 23 medalists from Beijing, but it did not mention any from London.
But an IOC spokeswoman, Emmanuelle Moreau, confirmed to the Associated Press that the London positive tests included eight medal winners.
The IOC stores doping samples for 10 years so they can be retested when new methods become available, meaning drug cheats who escaped detection at that time can be caught several years later.
In a separate announcement, the IOC stripped a Turkish weightlifter of her silver medal from the Beijing Games after her urine sample came back positive for steroids in new testing.
The IOC said Sibel Ozkan tested positive for stanozolol and was ordered to return her medal in the 48-kilogram class.
The 28-year-old weightlifter also faces a possible ban from the International Weightlifting Federation.
The retesting program has targeted athletes who were in contention to compete at the upcoming Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, but it has also been widened to cover many medalists.
“All athletes found to have infringed the anti-doping rules will be banned from competing” at the Rio Games, the IOC said.
The IOC said the previous first wave of retests had found 30 positive cases from Beijing and 23 from London.
The Russian Olympic Committee has said 22 of those cases involved Russian athletes, including medalists.
A total of 1,243 samples have been retested so far in the first two waves of the re-analysis program.
The 30 new positive cases from Beijing involved athletes from four sports and eight countries.
The 15 athletes caught in the new London tests represent two sports and nine countries.
A third and fourth round of retesting will continue throughout and after the Rio Games, the IOC said.
The IOC said it was informing the national Olympic committees and international sports federations affected by the latest positives, clearing the way for disciplinary proceedings to begin against the offending athletes.
Putin seeks anti-doping body
Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a new anti-doping commission to be created to shape Russia’s future strategy, as the country faces possible exclusion from the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Putin’s intervention came as former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev wrote to International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach to oppose a blanket ban on the Russian team, saying that a collective sanction was “unacceptable.”
And Russia faces being kicked out of the Para- lympics in Rio de Janeiro in the latest disciplinary action by a sports body infuriated at growing evidence about the country’s state-sponsored doping program.
Putin proposed Vitaly Smirnov, 81, an honorary member of the International Olympic Committee member and a veteran of Russian and Soviet sports administration, to lead the panel.
Scola to carry Argentine flag
Argentina veteran forward and former Rocket Luis Scola, 36, will carry the flag in the Opening Ceremony.
Scola is realistic about Argentina’s chances playing in a difficult group that includes Spain, Lithuania and Brazil.
“Obviously right now we’re in a different stage,” he said. “It’s going to be a little bit more difficult for us right now, but we’re going to compete. It’s going to be fun.”