LONDON — The results of 300 doping tests from the Beijing Games — reported as “missing” by independent observers — have been traced by the International Olympic Committee. All were negative.
The observer team of the World Anti-Doping Agency reported the missing results in its final report on the Beijing drug-testing program.
“Once the laboratory had apparently delivered all reports to the IO (independent observer) team, it transpired that around 300 test results were missing in comparison to the doping control forms,” the WADA report said.
The group said it checked the results’ status with the IOC medical commission but, as of the report’s completion last month, the IOC had not finished processing the lab results.
The disclosure raised serious questions about the credibility of the Beijing testing, but the IOC said Thursday the matter had been cleared up.
“Regarding the ‘300 missing tests,’ it is our understanding that there has been a communication problem between the Beijing laboratory and the IO team on the results of a number of tests,” IOC spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau said in an e-mail. “The results of these tests were communicated to the IOC by the end of August. All were negative. The results have now been transmitted to the IO team.”
The observers monitored all elements of the doping control process in Beijing, where the IOC ran the biggest drug-testing program in Olympic history.
Among the observers’ key findings was that 102 of 205 countries competing in Beijing failed to provide organizers information about their athletes’ whereabouts so they could be tested out of competition.
It is each country’s responsibility to notify testers of its athletes’ whereabouts during the games. The countries were not reprimanded during the games but were to receive written notification afterward.
The WADA group praised the increased number of overall tests (4,770), blood tests (969) and tests for EPO (817) and human growth hormone (471).
Six athletes were disqualified for doping offenses during the Olympics, and three other cases are still pending.
The IOC plans to retest Beijing samples for traces of CERA, the new blood-boosting drug that was recently detected in the samples of four cyclists from the Tour de France.
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