IOC: more athletes implicated in doping
July 22, 2016
The IOC says 45 more athletes - including 23 medalists - have been caught doping after samples were retested from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
"The new reanalysis once again shows the commitment of the IOC in the fight against doping," IOC President Thomas Bach said in a statement.
The IOC, citing legal reasons, did not identify the athletes or the nationalities concerned. However, in a later statement it did name 2008 weightlifting silver medalist Sibel Ozkan of Turkey as one offender who has had her medal stripped.
Of the Beijing group, 23 were medalists, the IOC said. The 30 positive results came from eight countries and four sports. The second wave of retests from London included 138 samples. The 15 positive tests were from nine countries and two sports.
The new positive tests for banned performance-enhancing drugs pile more pressure on the IOC as it mulls taking the unprecedented step of banning an entire country from next month's Rio Olympics over doping.
A pair of reports from the World Anti-Doping Agency have detailed rampant, state-run drug cheating by Russia, affecting 30 sports. Already Russia's track and field team has been banned from Rio by governing body the IAAF, although some clean athletes may still be able to compete.
A dozen national anti-doping agencies and several national Olympic committees have urged the IOC to rule all Russian competitors across all sports ineligible for the Rio Games, which start on August 5.
The IOC said a decision could be made as soon as Sunday.
jar/kms (AFP, AP)