Olympic Doping Update

October 16th, 2008 filed in Olympics

It has been an interesting week in Olympic Doping News. On October 10th we reported that the IOC would be conducting 5,000 re-tests for CERA and other substances. It turns out that the number will be closer to 1,000 as only targeted samples will be re-tested. However it was also discovered this week that 300 samples from the Olympic games went missing. Not to worry though, as the IOC has now announced that all of the missing samples have been recovered and have been found negative in testing. Makes you feel real confident in the process doesn’t it?

An international observer team reported its findings this week, in relation to the IOC drug testing program at the Beijing Olympics. While the report was mostly favorable, it did uncover a few irregularities :

“Nearly half of the NOCs present in Beijing did not provide whereabouts information for their athletes to enable the most effective pre-Games and Out of Competition testing programme,” they said. They said even after a pre-Games warning by the IOC “there were nevertheless approximately 102 NOCs who did not provide whereabouts.”

The observers also highlighted problems with what were initially perceived as missing test results, following a communication problem with the Beijing Games laboratory. “Once the laboratory had apparently delivered all reports to the IO Team, it transpired that around 300 test results were missing in comparison to the doping control forms,” they said.

However now it appears the missing samples were the result of a communication problem, as the missing test results have turned up. Apparently the World Anti-Doping Agency still is not happy with the snafu :

THE International Olympic Committee says all of 300 missing test results from the Beijing Olympic Games have been found and are all negative. But the World Anti-Doping Agency has requested a formal response from the IOC to look at the issues raised in an independent observers’ report

Officials were concerned that any failure to quickly explain the whereabouts of the missing test results would damage the credibility of the Olympic drug-testing regime. The recovery of the test results - and the urine and blood samples - are important to any future re-examination for drugs using improved testing techniques.

Which leads to our next story about the Olympic Doping Retest. The testing has begun for CERA and other substances, however the re-test pool has been reduced to about 1,000, instead of the 5,000 that was originally reported.

IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch said officials are still considering how many and which samples to retest. “The decision will be based on intelligence, on information we receive and many other parameters,” The tests will likely be targeted on endurance sports in which CERA would be most beneficial to athletes.

IOC chairman Jacques Rogge warns that this might only be the beginning, as samples can be retested for 8 years :

Urine and blood samples taken from competitors in Beijing can be repeatedly tested until 2016 as scientists develop new methods of analysis. The process has already started, with 5,000 samples shipped from Beijing to Lausanne so that they can be tested for Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator, or Cera, a new generation of the blood-booster drug, EPO discovered recently in the urine of cyclists on this summer’s Tour de France.

Rogge said: “This is the first stage of retroactive testing. We are going to keep, to preserve the urine and the blood for eight years. If, for example, we have a new chance to test next year or within two years because science can teach us that you can test for one substance or another which you cannot test for now, we will do that in the future.”

Apparently the numbers are all round figures, as a more detailed break down has now been released :

The IOC conducted 4,770 tests - 3,801 analyses of urine and 969 blood tests. Included in the urine tests were 817 EPO tests, and included in the blood tests were 471 human growth hormone tests.

British Olympian, Christine Ohuruogu, has praised the re-testing efforts, even though she herself has been involved in doping scandal.

“You want to feel that the powers that be are doing what they can to make sure that our work is not being wasted,” said Ohuruogu yesterday. “It is good to know that they are taking a strong stance against it so that athletes know they cannot get away with cheating, which is unacceptable.

“It is also good for 2012 because everything they do now is a dry run for 2012. You have to rely on your past experiences to move forward and, if they get close in Beijing, then they are going to get a bit closer in 2012, leading towards what they hope will be a drugs-free Olympics.”

And finally, on the lighter side of the story, a report of doping control officers taking their role very seriously :

The report noted that a doping-control officer took literally the guideline that “where possible” he should stay beside an athlete to be tested and wound up doing a lap of honour around the pitch with a field hockey team. Another chaperone got swallowed up in a postgame huddling of a basketball team.

And there you have it, you are all caught up on the latest in Olympic Doping. Check back often as the results of those re-tests are released.