Re-testing of more than a thousand samples from the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics uncovered only one athlete to have taken banned substances, the International Olympic Committee said on Monday.
The IOC said it had conducted re-tests of 1,195 urine samples, including those of all medallists from the winter Games seven years ago as well as of all Russian athletes.
“Three adverse analytical findings, all coming from one athlete, are being taken forward for results management,” the IOC said in a statement. It did provide any details of the athlete in question, nor of his or her sport or nationality.
The low number of positive re-tests from Vancouver is in stark contrast with the results from samples from the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics.
More than 100 athletes tested positive in total in those re-tests and some 75 medals had to be reallocated. More than 80 per cent of those cases involved the sports of weightlifting and athletics.
“This wide-ranging re-analysis is another demonstration of the IOC’s commitment to fight against doping and to protect clean athletes,” IOC President Thomas Bach said.
“The Vancouver 2010 reanalysis programme was done in full cooperation with the World Anti-Doping Agency and with the help and support of stakeholders such as International Federations and experts,” he added.
The IOC stores athletes’ samples for a decade as it looks to re-test them using newer methods or testing for substances that at the time of the competition were not yet known.
It has also started re-analyzing the samples of all Russian athletes from the 2014 Sochi Olympics as part of ongoing investigations into the country’s doping scandal and its alleged manipulation of athletes’ drugs samples during those Games.
