After its bureau meeting in Bangkok, FINA announced that it would be reexamining the blood samples from the 2o09 World Championships in Rome, where there were 43 World Records set.
In September, FINA announced that none of the 391 tests taken at the Rome meet were positive, including 162 that were screened for the blood-boosting horomone EPO. The retests will be looking for plasticizers, which are tiny particles of plastic that are left over from blood in blood bags and are seen as evidence of doping.
It is not clear as to what the legal options will be to athletes who are found with plasticizers in their blood, as they are simply indirect evidence of possible PED use, rather than a smoking gun.
FINA also announced that they were considering instituting a ‘biological passport’ program. This program will allow them to store samples for up to 8 years, and monitor swimmers blood profiles for evidence of doping.
