IOC to Retest Turin and Beijing Samples
Dopers competing in the last couple of Olympics should be sweating a bit (I hope.) as the IOC has announced it will be re-testing urine samples stored from the 2006 winter Olympics using an enhanced detection protocol.
The new testing can detect certain steroids several months after their use. This is a significant improvement over the prior testing protocol, which would fail to detect residues after a few weeks of abstinence.
”The IOC is currently retesting some of the samples collected during the Olympic Winter Games in Turin in 2006 and we can confirm that we are using the new long-term metabolites method to detect anabolic steroids,” the IOC said in a statement.
Current rules have an eight year statute of limitations so time is running out to test these 2006 samples.
It remains unclear whether this action was spurred on by the action of independent researchers.
According to a weekend report by German broadcaster ARD, doping labs in Cologne and Moscow using the new method have detected hundreds of positive cases in recent months. The report said the substances included oral turinabol, a steroid widely used in the former East Germany, and stanozolol, the drug which led to Ben Johnson’s disqualification at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
At the recent World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)’s 2013 World Conference on Doping in Sport in Johannesburg, South Africa, IOC President Thomas Bach said the testing for the 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi would be the most stringent of any Olympic competition.
“With a record number of samples and pre-competition tests, we shall be smarter and tougher in our fight against doping than at any previous Olympic Winter Games,” he said. “We shall perform these tests anywhere in the world – as a more effective, more flexible, better deterrent. We shall improve our anti-doping system with regard to both quality and quantity.”
For the good of the sport, and clean athletes everywhere, this is all good news.
Unfortunately, the IOC will always be playing catch-up as the dopers continue to refine their game.