“The new reanalysis once again shows the commitment of the IOC in the fight against doping,” said IOC President Thomas Bach as the IOC announced that reanalysis of
the second wave of samples from Beijing 2008 and London 2012 resulted in provisional adverse analytical findings (PAAFs) of 30 athletes from Beijing and 15 from London. The latest results bring the total number of athletes who tested positive for prohibited substances from the first and second waves of reanalysis to 98. The third and fourth waves are expected to continue throughout and after the Olympic Games Rio 2016. The second wave of the Beijing 2008 retests focused mainly on medalists, as will subsequent testing. Of the 30 latest PAAFs from Beijing 2008, 23 were medalists.
The 30 athletes were from four sports and eight National Olympic Committees (NOCs). The 15 athletes with AAFs from London 2012 represented two sports and 9 NOCs. In total, 1,243 doping samples from Beijing 2008 and London 2012 were selected to be reanalyzed in wave one and wave two. The IOC announced, the athletes, NOCs and IFs concerned are being informed, after which the proceedings against the athletes can begin. All athletes found to have infringed the anti-doping rules will be banned from competing at the Olympic Games Rio 2016.
This story first appeared in the blog, The Sport Intern. The editor is Karl-Heinz Huba of Lorsch, Germany. He can be reached at ISMG@aol.com. The article is reprinted here with permission of Huba.