LAUSANNE: The reanalysis of doping samples taken at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics should be completed in August, the IOC’s medical chief said Sunday.
“The reanalysis of Vancouver samples has started and should be finished in August,” said Richard Budgett after a meeting of the executive board of the International Olympic Committee.
The IOC has ordered the re-testing of more than 1,000 samples taken during the 2010 Olympics in Canada.
Budgett said that re-tests of samples taken at the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Summer Games were now complete, with analyses from the 2014 Sochi Winter Games still ongoing.
The re-testing came in the wake of a state-sponsored doping system in Russia, whose track and field athletes were banned from taking part in the 2016 Rio Games and will miss out on next month’s world championships in London, although some have now been cleared to compete internationally as neutrals.
In an effort to make anti-doping tests more independent, the IOC has helped establish an Independent Testing Authority (ITA), under the aegis of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which will be operational at the Pyeongchang Winter Games between February 9-25, 2018.
“Testing in Pyeongchang will be under the authority of the ITA. It will be there in Pyeongchang, even if in a preliminary form,” Budgett said.
“Responsibility will be passed to the ITA. The resources of the IOC will be there at their disposal.”
The idea “is to make sure the doping control will be independent from the IOC.” --AFP