The first doping positives from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics have been reported, identifying 4 athletes, all of whom are men who competed in track & field. Here is a summary of those 4 incidents:
- Great Britain’s C.J. Ujah – anabolic agent: Ujah was a member of the GBR men’s 4×100 meter relay, which won the Silver medal. He also made semifinals of the men’s 100m dash, but was eliminated in semifinals.
- Bahrain’s Sadik Mikhou – blood transfusion: finished 8th in preliminary heat 2 of the men’s 1500m.
- Kenya’s Mark Otieno Odhiambo – anabolic agents: entered in the men’s 100m, but did not compete.
- Georgia’s Benik Abramyan – anabolic agents: entered in men’s shot put, but did not compete.
These doping violations were reported by the International Testing Agency (ITA), and have since been turned over to the Athletics Integrity Unit (ATU). The next step is for the ITA to conduct examinations from the seconds samples given by each athlete named above, and report those findings to the ATU. At that point, the ATU will potentially be handing out sanctions to these athletes.
Great Britain’s C.J. Ujah’s violation will potentially have wide-reaching implications. Ujah competed on the BGR men’s 4x100m relay, which won the Silver medal. If the additional testing yields results that confirm the presence of unauthorized anabolic agents in his system, Ujah may be facing up to a 4-year ban, and GBR’s medal in the relay may be in jeopardy. If Ujah gets handed a 4-year ban, that would exclude him from having the opportunity to compete at the 2024 Olympic in Paris, which are just 3 years away.
The ITA was created in 2018 with coordination from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), in order to create an independent testing agency. WADA and the IOC decided on the need to institute an independent doping agency after a discovery that Russia had instituted a systemic state-sponsored doping program, allegedly with the assistance of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA).
No problem, just change their names to “-OC” and then they can compete.
Why mentioning Russia when other countries transgress these doping rules?
Not surprised to see Bahrain on the list. They’ve won more than a dozen track medals over the past 4 or 5 Olympics and at least half of the athletes have ended up with some type of doping suspension. Maybe it’s world championship and Olympic medals. Regardless, very high number. The women’s 400m track gold medalist from 2019 world championships was suspended for Tokyo. This time the Bahrain silver medalist at women’s 10,000 is suspicious because she basically never ran the event until recently.
I feel like a very large percentage of these elite runners are using some sort of ped, at least at some point in their careers they have. My mother is a former Olympian and she can attest that almost everyone on her team was on something, back in the day at least. Not only am I suspicious of PEDs, but what about these runners with DSD from these African countries? The odds of someone having DSD are very rare, so the fact that two runners from the same country in the Olympic women’s 200 m finals having it are not just coincidental, in my opinion. Was going on out there?!
I think you’ll find foreign coahes and agents are looking for talent in Africa and turning up those DSD athletes.
My question will always be “Why weren’t the test done with the results before they competed?” They have wedged out some one of a silver metal and other standings. Maybe you don’t care about 8th place but the athletes do.
Stop premeditated doping by issuing a lifetime ban, and yes you would still catch people because there are those with no integrity and stupid enough to try and beat the tests. Any country found to have such a program should be banned from competition for 15 years.
Harsh, yeah but premeditating cheaters are a scourge to fair play, and shouldn’t be forgiven.
CJ you utter clown!
This should bump u.s. men up to silver in the 4 x 100 meter track race
Canada. Not usa,
The top times of 2020 world really messed up this race (USA, Brazil, Japan)
USA didn’t even make the final so they’ll get no bump at all.
US Track & Field 4×100 relays (men’s) is a disaster right now and has been for about 20 years. Total leadership overhaul is needed. They deserved the what they got, nothing
Heard an interview w/ a few of the athletes and they were legitimately asking the coaches while the meet was going on, “when are we gonna work on handoffs?”
I’ve never coached a single 4×1 handoff but I did a bunch back in high school, USATF hire me!! I promise – I will make sure the relay at least practices a couple times before the race.
What kind of dumb comment is this? Clearly you didn’t watch who won bronze or any of the medals 🤣
And so the 10-year window to re-test begins….I suspect there will be many more yet!
US cyclist Katie Compton had irregularities in her bio passport… retesting gave a positive for anabolics