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≡ ANTI-DOPING ≡
The International Testing Agency, the body tasked by the International Olympic Committee to handle its Olympic anti-doping testing program, provided a summary report on its activities at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. In short:
● 6,130 samples were collected from the opening of the Olympic Village on 19 July to the close of the Games on 11 August.
● 4,154 athletes were tested 4,770 times, providing the 6,130 samples, including 4,798 urine samples, 1,136 blood samples and 196 samples using the newer Dried Blood Spot technology.
● The 4,150 total represented 38.75% of all athletes at the Games – the most ever – up 4% from Tokyo 2020 and up 10% from Rio 2016.
● 66% of the tests were in-competition at the Games and 34% out-of-competition.
● Athletes from 200 National Olympic Committees were tested, 97% of the total attending.
The most-tested countries were those which sent the largest delegations, starting with the U.S., then France, China, Australia, Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Japan, Brazil and the Netherlands in the top 10.
The most-tested sports were Athletics, Aquatics, Cycling, Rowing, Wrestling, Canoeing, Boxing, Weightlifting, Judo and Gymnastics.
Happily, there were only five positives reported during the Games, but the ITA report also notes that the pre-Games testing program identified more than 40 doping violations. Moreover, the pre-Games testing program was thorough enough that “nearly 90% of all participating athletes undergoing testing at least once before the start of the Games.”
(The five positives came from Afghanistan, Bolivia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, and Nigeria.)
Moreover, all of the samples collected in Paris will be stored for re-analysis within 10 years at the ITA’s own storage facilities.
All of this was supervised by 30 ITA staff, with the actual doping control carried out by 266 doping control officers and 570 chaperones, mostly Paris 2024 volunteers.
Observed: While the five doping positives reported during the Games is commendably very low, the real answer on doping and Paris 2024 will not come for a decade, when re-analyses are made with technology more advanced than what is available today.
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