As with the retesting of samples from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has released initial findings of reanalysis of samples from the 2012 London Olympics. A total of 265 samples from London were retested using the latest technology available.
The retesting is part of the IOC’s efforts to protect clean athletes by preventing dopers from competing at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
According to the IOC, 23 athletes across 6 different counties have tested positive for banned substances as a result of the samples being retested. The athletes stem from 5 different sports, although no specifics have been released at this time other than to say that all have failed their A samples.
The athletes and corresponding federations and national Olympic committees have been informed of the retest results and all athletes found to have infringed the anti-doping rules will be banned from Rio. The athletes will also face a possible loss of any medals earned at the London Games.
“These reanalyses show, once again, our determination in the fight against doping,” said IOC President Thomas Bach. “We want to keep the dopers away from the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. This is why we are acting swiftly now. I have already appointed a disciplinary commission, which has the full power to take all the decisions on behalf of the IOC.”
As the IOC’s program is ongoing, the organization says more results may be released in the coming weeks.
Wish they would provide the names/countries
I’m thinking that they are going to be similar to those from 2008, mostly from track and field.
23. Is that all? Can I put up an alternate guessing game on who WON”T be on that list ?
Starting with all the GB team. All the USA -or will they need to sacrifice one ? All the Canadian team . All the Scandinavian teams . The irish & maybe only one other from the EU. Unlike Beachmouse I think Turkey will be safe. Probably not Australia because they mostly went to socialise not win & would have the sense to delay the party drugs.
While Asli Cakir-Alptekin had her 1500M gold stripped a few years back over bio passport irregularities, original silver medalist Gamze Bulut’s bio passport case from March of this year is still listed as ‘pending’ and she’s likely to lose that either way shortly. Dang, that final had 00s Tour de France level of juice in it- 5 of 10 finishers have now been busted.
I lose track of the “turkish” athletes because they are forced to change their names. One I was following years ago because I was at least pleased they had females athletes was in fact Ukrainian or something . (It was from a time when ukrainian was not an ethnic thing but just where they had landed after 1991).
I will stick with fond memories of the Czech 800m WR holder & the East Bloc hurdler who had missing fingers &really freaked out the English roses on the start line. Names are forgotten but the visions are golden!
Ps I cannot take athletics seriously ever again but I am not bitter -they were fun times.
Why do they announce this before a full report can be made. Too much useless speculation and anxiety goes on when no names are attached. They need to wait and release the names when they announce how many.
I’d say 12 +/- 1 of the new positives will be in track & field, and involve the former Soviets plus Turkey. Would not expect more than 3 of the positives to come from swimming and would not be surprised if it was zero.
I agree with you, Beachmouse. I bet that the a comprehensive reexamination would turn up some swimming cheats, but I think they only tested the most people that they were suspicious of. It nice that probable cause doesn’t have to apply to random urine samples
Can we just have separate games. One roided out freak vs another roided out freak. One regular schmuck vs the other regular schmuck. Let the market reflect which of the two is more popular. If clean competition loses…oh well. We can then watch people trying to grow gills to be the best. We will no longer have to watch one of these science experiments win gold, and say they are the best, when really they are just the biggest hustler. (Lance, you douche). Let’s just be done. Stop wasting the money to catch cheaters. Let the freak show begin.
Doesn’t really solve the problem. Are you just going to take the “clean” athletes’ word for it that they are clean?
If there are two sets of games, why would an open doper want to be in them? Once there are two, no need to hide. If you are willing to go to those lengths to be the best, why would you compete against a lesser standard.
If you were using PEDs, you would still want to participate in the clean games because it would be easier to win.
Just look at paralympic swimming everyone cheats to get put down into a lower class so they can suddenly be a world record holder and gold medalist. A lot of countries pay bonus $$$ for the gold medal so yes there would be a lot of cheating still.
I think you guys are dreaming about the high profile swimming medal winners getting caught. The 2008 tests didnt catch any swimmers. However, it would be incredibly awesome if one of these high profile athletes got caught after making public denials all these years…I’m sure they are all ready with their “tainted meat excuse”
And the “I take heart medication” nonsense
I love the idea of retrospective testing. It’ll probably prove to be the most effective way of catching people as technology improves. Doesn’t stop people being robbed of their glory in the moment but I like the idea of cheaters sweating for years wondering when their past is going to catch up with them.
Agreed, especially if sponsors and federations can make financial claims against athletes for stipends that were provided.
Yeah, it’s fraud in my eyes. If you are paid bonuses to perform in order to reflect positively on a brand or federation and you cause that organisation reputational harm by your association and they have suffered financial costs you should be going to a criminal court, not just stripped of medals and records… in an ideal world anyway.