IOC confirm 23 medallists among 45 more failed drug tests from Beijing 2008 and London 2012
30 positive tests from Beijing 2008 and 15 from London 2012 have been discovered after retesting samples
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Your support makes all the difference.The International Olympic Committee [IOC] have confirmed that 30 athletes who competed at Beijing 2008 and 15 from London 2012 have failed drug tests in the second allocation of retests, including 23 medallists from the 2008 Olympic Games.
The IOC confirmed the news on Friday morning after receiving the results, which comes two months after it was announced that 30 positive tests from Beijing and 23 from London had been discovered during a sample of retests.
The 30 positive tests from the 2008 Olympics come from four different sports and eight different countries, while the 15 failed tests from the Summer Games four years ago come from two different sports and nine different nations.
After the initial failed tests were announced in May, the IOC decided at a summit meeting in Lausanne to include all medal winners from Beijing 2008 and London 2012, and also expanded on the targeted analysis of only retesting athletes who were planning to compete at Rio 2016 next month.
The second batch means that 1,243 samples have been reanalysed, returning 98 positive tests. The IOC have already announced plans for a third and fourth wave of testing to be carried out during and after Rio 2016 respectively.
The National Olympic Committee’s [NOC’s] involved in the failed test are currently being notified by the IOC, with disciplinary proceedings then able to be carried out along with the testing of B-samples.
"The new reanalysis once again shows the commitment of the IOC in the fight against doping,” claimed Thomas Bach, IOC President.
The news comes as the IOC ponder issuing a blanket ban to Russia for Rio 2016, which would prevent any of their athletes from competing at the Olympics next month. On Thursday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport [Cas] announced that they had upheld the IAAF’s decision to ban all Russian track and field athletes from the Games – apart from two athletes based in the United States and who held clean doping records – and the IOC must now decide whether to ban all Russian athletes across all sports in Rio.
A meeting of the IOC’s executive board will be held on Sunday with a decision to come before Wednesday.
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