four out of ten athletes underwent doping control, five positive cases detected – Libération

Never has a sporting event been so scrutinized by the anti-doping authorities. Nearly 39% of athletes were tested during the Paris Olympic Games and five positive cases detected at this stage, details this Thursday, September 19, the International Testing Agency (ITA). Established in 2018 and funded in part by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the ITA plans, organizes and manages the results of anti-doping controls during the Games. She has already worked in Tokyo in 2021 then in Beijing in 2022 and also manages the anti-doping program for the Tour de France and several sporting disciplines.

In total over these Games, 6,130 samples (urine, blood, dried blood) were taken from 4,770 tests on 4,154 athletes, according to the ITA. An increase of 4% compared to Tokyo 2020 and 10% compared to Rio 2016. Either “the greatest proportion” of athletes never tested, according to the ITA, in line with the objectives that the agency had set in the spring. These targeted checks took place between the opening of the Olympic village in mid-July and the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games on August 11. “Almost two thirds” of them took place during the competition itself, the rest outside. The most tested countries are the United States, France, China, Australia and Great Britain.

The ITA had also carried out a vast testing program several weeks before the Olympics, a very risky period, which meant that around 90% of the approximately 10,000 participants in the Paris Olympics were tested at least once. During this period, around forty anti-doping rule violations were recorded.

Up to 10 years of sample retention

So far, the ITA has found five anti-doping rule violations based on the results of samples it collected during Paris 2024. At the Tokyo 2021 Olympics, six positive cases were detected. The athletes concerned were provisionally suspended, meaning immediate exclusion from any competition during the Games. Their cases were then referred to the anti-doping division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport and their respective federations (or the ITA acting on their behalf) before a final decision was made.

The body’s control strategy was based on various parameters: the specific physiology of the sports concerned (athletics, swimming, weightlifting, cycling, rowing, are among the most tested disciplines because they are considered as those most at risk for the practice of doping), individual data relating to athletes as well as the risk levels specific to each country. All guided by the recommendations of the ITA Paris 2024 expert group.

Samples collected during the fortnight of competition and those compiled during the six months preceding the event will be stored in the ITA’s centralized long-term storage facility (known as CLTSF) for a period of up to ten years. They will be selected for re-analysis by the ITA at a later date, “if and when technological or scientific developments allow more advanced methods of analysis”specifies the ITA.

For its part, the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) announced on Thursday that“on two occasions, it mobilized the entire range of its investigative powers to support the ITA in joint investigations”. One of these two investigations targeted the Algerian athletics coach Amar Benida and the 800-meter bronze medalist, Djamel Sedjati, and led to searches in the Olympic village by gendarmes responsible for the fight against doping. Nothing has leaked since. The AFLD was part of the anti-doping system for the Paris Olympics under the authority of the ITA.

Updated: at 5:45 p.m. with the AFLD press release.